Dear Sonia,
I can understand your problem. Unplanned absence of employees breaks the continuity of the work. I could dissatisfy the customer also. Other learned members have raised their queries on your post or given suggestion also. However, I would like to ask few more questions.
Do you have leave policy in your company? If yes, then what is the structure? How many days one can avail of earned leave and how many days sick leave? Is sick leave part of earned leave?
What is the percentage of unplanned absence?
Do you have concept of Leave Without Pay (LWP)? What is the ratio of LWP per person per month?
What is the manpower attrition rate in your company? Do you conduct the exit interviews? Has anything emerged in the exit interviews?
As a matter of suggestion, I can suggest that you may start "Attendance Bonus". If the employee attends the work on all the working days, he/she becomes eligible for the attendance bonus. In case if he/she does not attend the work even for half-day, he/she foregoes the bonus. This forfeiture of bonus should be applicable even when employee applies for the leave well in advance. Attendance bonus could increase your salary bill but it may be considered this as the business cost.
Second suggestion is on automation. Your primary cost is employee cost. Can you automate your processes to as to reduce this cost? Banking sector is going for automation in a big way. State Bank of India (SBI) has started complete human-less branch in Mumbai. Other banks are following suit. Can you do something similar?
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar