The Olympics have hit their stride and that, allied to the August Bank Holidays, has led to a sudden surge in people taking holidays, lieu days or – and it’s a British pastime – just not turning up to work. Here are some tips to help SME owners understand why absence happens and how to cope with planned and unplanned leave.

Be prepared – if an SME owner is surprised by planned holiday they aren’t on top of planning and if they are surprised by unplanned holiday or what is often called ‘sunshine absence’: good weather or major national events triggering absenteeism, they aren’t on top of recruitment, motivation and HR issues. If there is a member of staff in a small team who regularly lets people down, it’s an issue that goes beyond the days they don’t show up and needs to be addressed with mentoring and training along with motivation and positive role models.

Be customer focused – it’s not just staff who go ‘AWOL’ customers and freelancers can both disappear without warning! Bear this in mind when planning invoicing and ensure that your record keeping is sensitive to this kind of behaviour – you might want to ‘pre-invoice’ a client who regularly hops onto his yacht and out of reach for six weeks in the summer, or line up an alternate illustrator or geek to cover the one who usually services your business needs but might just vanish onto the festival circuit as he or she did two years ago.

Be what you wish for – when your small team is depleted you may become the client or freelancer that you most hate! Does everybody in your team know who deputes key tasks? Do you have a system to ensure suppliers get paid if you and your second-in-command are both absent? Many SMEs don’t have a full deputable chain, and bottlenecks can develop.

Flex – flexibility needs to built in long before it is needed. Ensure that people know how to do key parts of other people’s jobs. Lead by example: are you prepared to let somebody pitch to a client instead of you? Will you give access to your work emails to a trusted colleague so they can respond to key customers while you are away? Driving this level of flexibility and trust through your organisation can ensure that smooth transitions take place when necessary.