Is it time to put the phone down on unplanned absence calls?

‍7.30am. You’re cleaning your teeth. These are the last few moments to think, plan and prepare before the workday starts. Then, just like that, it begins abruptly with a phone call from one of your team. They sound anxious, nervous and unwell. You’re still trying to spit toothpaste into the sink as you respond.

They’re off for the day. Did you say the right thing? Hopefully not the wrong thing. Were you compassionate, or did you just sound a bit stressed? As you’re driving to work, you suddenly remember the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that your business has in place and that it could have offered some support. Was there a virtual GP benefit too? You can’t remember, and maybe it’s now too late to mention it. You don’t want to call back and disturb your team member.

‍Arriving at work, you’re called into an emergency meeting and your intention to record the absence in the system goes out of the window. It remains forgotten. It never gets updated. You don’t remember to share the EAP with your team member, and they return to work and life carries on. A similar pattern repeats itself several times, and six months later they’re signed off with stress. Your absence records are incomplete, you’re not sure how they got to that point, and you're being asked by your boss what went wrong. And you’re not really sure.

It’s a commonly held belief that making a phone call to report absence is the best way of doing things.

‍ ‍"We all know each other - there are no secrets."

‍ ‍"We want our line managers to know what’s going on."

‍ ‍"There are no issues in our business - our absence rate is low."

Yet with absence rates at an all-time high (9.4 days on average in the last 12 months - CIPD, Sept. 2025), someone, somewhere, isn’t going to work. And perhaps it all starts with that ill-fated phone call, when line managers are expected to make a welfare decision before they’ve even started their day.

We all think absence management starts on day seven. In reality, it starts at 7.30am, at the very first moment an unplanned absence is reported.

The risk at this point is huge. Inconsistent conversations. Poor-quality data. Different managers handling situations in different ways. Add to that changing workplace demographics, and the challenge becomes even greater.

‍Generation Z is now firmly established in the workplace, with Generation Alpha hot on their heels. For many younger employees, who have grown up in a world of Snapchat, instant messaging and TikTok, making a phone call has become the exception rather than the norm.

‍Workplace support has never been more prevalent or accessible, yet connecting the dots between absence and support seems to be slipping away. At the same time, the cost of sickness absence continues to rise, placing increasing pressure on employers to intervene earlier and make better-informed decisions.

What if line managers weren't expected to have these conversations at 7.30am?

What if every absence was recorded consistently?

What if employees were connected to the support they needed immediately, and managers received the information they needed before making a well-considered follow-up call?

What if managers simply had five minutes to think before picking up the phone?

That's exactly why we built AVA—a digital absence reporting line that captures the absence first, connects employees to relevant support, notifies managers immediately, and gives them the time and information they need before having the conversation.

AVA provides a consistent, confidential route for reporting unplanned absence while ensuring managers remain responsible for follow-up and ongoing absence management.

It doesn't replace the manager; it helps them have a better conversation.

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