Absenteeism
How Can Your Organization Battle It?
Here’s a situation employers are all too familiar with: When an employee doesn’t show up for work, his or her team’s productivity may decline. But what can companies do about absenteeism? You can’t control how often your employees get sick, right?
That may be true, said Paula Allen, vice president of research and integrative solutions for HR research firm Morneau Shepell. But a study she authored found 52 percent of incidental workplace absences were not caused by illness. Not only are these unscheduled absences disruptive to business, but they can also indicate deeper problems in the workplace that need to be solved, like burnout or interpersonal conflict.
“Don’t just take it as the cost of doing business,” Allen said of absenteeism. “It’s not about being punitive or policing,” she said. It’s about solving a bigger problem.
Many employers are searching for solutions to the problem of absenteeism. According to an ADP Research Institute® report, 66 percent of decision makers in large companies are concerned with absenteeism and 54 percent report the phenomenon negatively affects productivity. But when managed effectively, absenteeism can be reduced, resulting in a more productive and healthy workplace.
A Mandate To Measure
“In many industries, absenteeism isn’t really tracked,” Allen said. The ADP study concurred: 53 percent of large and 72 percent of midsize employers report using either manual or no systematic process to manage absenteeism.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so automating the tracking of absence data is crucial. Finding patterns in this data is one way employers can identify the underlying issues contributing to absenteeism.
According to Marta Moakley, legal editor for XpertHR, identifying data patterns could lead employers to a particular employee who needs support or a department that is having interpersonal issues. It could also uncover more subtle issues. Regular Tuesday and Thursday absences, for example, could suggest employees are taking on other commitments. “It could be related to our current gig economy, where an employee could be working part time elsewhere,” said Moakley. In such a case, an employer might reconsider if its employee compensation is sufficient.
Well-Trained Management
Managers are on the front lines of absentee management, making them a critical part of the process. However, a 2016 XpertHR benchmarking survey found the most common issue affecting absentee management was the need to improve supervisors’ engagement with managing absence.
Supervisors should be trained to understand the importance of properly managing absences, as well as how best to respond to absenteeism when they see it. “You want to make sure your managers know what to do and what conversations to have,” Allen said.
That training includes learning company policies and the laws around employee absence, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act. Managers also should develop what Moakley called “the art of running a really good informal meeting with an employee.”
Rather than reacting negatively to repeated absence, this art involves asking workers about their career goals and how the employer can help in achieving those goals, as well as about what might be hindering those goals. “This can give rise to really good information,” Moakley said.
Following Red Flags
That information, combined with patterns in absence data, can help employers diagnose and address the root causes of absenteeism: Burnout? Child care issues? Commuting challenges? These are all issues employers can help alleviate.
“Things only change if there is focused attention on making them change,” Allen said. For example, if an employer offers mental health support but there are repeated absences due to mental health needs, it may be that the availability of the benefit has not been properly communicated or that employees don’t feel comfortable taking advantage of it. If a company doesn’t communicate to people about a benefit and doesn’t evince support for such resources, it minimizes the number of people it will help with this investment.
The potential solutions to chronic absence are as vast as the causes: Remote work, conflict management, flexible scheduling or a new professional challenge can all inspire employees to show up to work more often.
A Healthy Workplace
In addition to addressing existing workplace issues, employers can also prevent absenteeism from happening in the first place. An ADP Research Institute® report found more than half of decision makers in large and midsize companies offering wellness programs reported those programs have reduced absenteeism slightly to significantly.
“When employers invest in employee well-being,” said Allen, “people feel more engaged and people attend work more.”
Naturally, employees who are happy and healthy at work are productive employees as well, helping to contribute to business success. And with proper measurement, analysis and management of absenteeism in the workplace, they’re more likely to stay that way.
Source: forbes
Patty Block, President and Founder of The Block Group, established her company to advocate for women-owned businesses, helping them position their companies for strategic growth. Charting the course for impactful, sustainable, profitable businesses, the beacon is control: of your strategic direction, your money, your time, your staffing, and your ability to bring in business. The Block Group brings together the people, resources and ideas that build results.
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