How to manage absenteeism at work!

For any organisation to succeed, its employees play a vital role in translating business philosophy and planed strategy into definable actions.

These actions, when executed within an acceptable quality frame work and in a timely manner, will lead to successful results. Thus, having a well trained, motivated, skilled staff with correct attitude will be the path to success provided that the expectations of the management have been communicated clearly to them.  Excellent attendance is an expectation of all employers. Daily attendance is especially important for hourly employees whose customers and coworkers have the expectation of on-time product/ service delivery.

However, absenteeism of employees has become one of the biggest hassles faced by most of the managers. It is becoming a fast emerging issue around the world.  



What is absenteeism?

Attendance is the fact of being present at work. Also, attendance is used to define the number of persons present on a particular day at work. In other words, absenteeism is failing to show up for work when you are scheduled to be there. The effects of absenteeism in the workplace are directly related to decreased productivity. The company, eventually is at a loss trying to cover up the indirect cost involved to hire temporary staff, and pay employees for overtime.



Reasons for absenteeism

Understanding the causes for absenteeism cannot be done through a superficial study of the employees’ behavioural pattern. Sudden sickness, stress, vehicle breakdown, lack of daycare facility, parent falling sick, death of a relative, down-right laziness are some of the well known excuses given by employees for sudden absence at work. If we do a preliminary survey we will be able to identify a bunch of employees who belong to this category in every organisation in Sri Lanka.

Any research on absenteeism needs to look at the real reasons for it. Sometimes employees fall sick when they really do not want to go to work. They would not call you up and say, “I’m not coming to work today because my supervisor abuses me.” Or, “I’m not coming because my chair is uncomfortable/the canteen is not clean or that the toilets are unhygienic etc.”

It has been observed that people who hold managerial and professional positions have a lower rate of absenteeism than the shop floor or non executive employees. Further the managerial and professional employees generally have the most interesting jobs and the greatest amount of responsibility. They feel valued and committed. Absent employees feel little commitment to the organisation’s success and have little interest in performing their jobs. However, the causes or reasons that lead for absenteeism can be categorised in to two; Personal factors and Work place factors.   



Personal factors

Attitude

The attitude one carries to work says a lot about the person. Employees with strong workplace ethics will respect their work and appreciate the contribution they make to their companies. Such employees will not engage themselves in taking unscheduled leave. On the other hand, employees with very low work ethics are in-disciplined and have lot of integrity and behavioural issues. Since, they feel no obligation towards the company, absenteeism comes easily to them.

Age

The younger generation prefers to spend time with their friends and have fun, rather than being tied down with work responsibility. These are characterics of the ‘Y’ generation. Lack of ownership and sense of responsibility often leads them to take unauthorised leave. With age, people gain experience and maturity, which makes them focused and responsible. Their approach is rather professional and they prefer to stick to their chairs to get the work done. If ever they are found absent, then it could be due to ‘genuine’ sickness.

Gender

Women generally do a balancing act by balancing their time between home and work. Family, being their prime priority, they don’t think twice before taking a step towards absenteeism. Poor physical fitness can also be a reason for the absenteeism. Several organisations take employees’ families’ health and hygiene into their Social Responsibility process. This helps to ensure that the domestic family life is healthy and the employee can come to work happy and in a positive frame of mind.



Personal and family issues

Issues in personal life like financial difficulties, marital issues, and child care issues can also be a reason for absenteeism. Advice and timely professional interventions by the company could help in this regard.



Workplace factors

Stress

The pressure at work sometimes put weight on the employees. Stress could be a result of workload, technical failures or even the relationship between colleagues/boss. Then they have a low morale which will not be helpful in performing to the expected standards.  The employees then resort to excuses that can help them stay away from work.

Work routine

Doing the same job over a period of time can get monotonous. The employees find the job functions boring. Poor working conditions, inadequate leadership and poor supervision etc. will also add to this situation. They rather choose time off to do something interesting than come to work.

Job satisfaction

 If employees do not find their jobs challenging, if salary and other benefits are not attractive and if there is no career path, dissatisfaction and de-motivation creep in. These lead to more absenteeism in the workplace.

Seniority

Employees, who have been with the company for a long time, are well-adjusted with the working culture and the job. Therefore, they find no reason to be absent without authorisation. On the other hand, new hires are more prone to taking ad hoc breaks to unwind themselves.



Cost of absenteeism

Unscheduled absences disturb the smooth functioning of the organisation. Indeed, absenteeism can create an impact on the profitability of a small business directly and slowly on multinational companies, in several different respects. The most obvious cost is in the area of sick leave benefits (if the business offers such benefits) but there are significant hidden costs as well.

• Lost productivity of the absent employee
• Overtime for other employees to fill in
• Decreased overall productivity of those employees
• Any temporary help costs incurred
• Possible loss of business or dissatisfied customers

Problems with employee morale

Indeed, excessive absenteeism, if left unmonitored, can create an impact on a company in numerous ways.



How to manage absenteeism?

Managing absenteeism is not easy as it connects with people’s needs and wants. To manage this situation, management should first identify the employees personally and should be able to categorize them in to 3 areas – those with legitimate reasons to be absent, chronic problem employees and those most responsive to efforts to turn them around. All employees should be given an equal chance to improve their level of commitment. The most responsive employees, after some initial effort, should be given more attention. Those who do not respond at all may not justify further investment.

Management styles that are too authoritarian tend to promote high levels of absenteeism among employees. Authoritarian managers are managers who have poor listening skills, set unreachable goals, have poor communication skills, and are inflexible. Training supervisors on how to build supportive, trusting relationships with employees to open up and change within a two-way communication process is important and should be considered as the second step of the process. It is important to build a healthy relationship, to establish trust, to gain an understanding of how employees feel about their jobs and what is important to them. Such attention and care alone will generate a good degree of loyalty.

Giving employees incentives for reduced absenteeism is not the same as rewarding or giving employees bonuses for reduced absenteeism. An incentive provides an employee with a boost to their motivation to avoid unnecessary absenteeism. It simply helps the employee decide to go to work versus staying home.

The supervisor needs to find ways to make employees feel more committed and motivated. These include giving more responsibility, adding interesting tasks, asking them for their input and praising them regularly for desirable actions. All such engagement must take place in regular individual and team meetings. Maintaining such relationship is important as employees know when the managers act to get the work done. They quickly understand the genuine responses of superiors as well as superficial treatments.

Finally, every company should have an attendance policy. An attendance policy allows a manager to intervene with an employee who is frequently absent.



Dealing with chronic absenteeism

Punitive measures are unlikely to be successful with employees who persistently fail to show up for work. In any case, such measures create a negative atmosphere which can make an organisational culture seem like a prison, thus even further motivating employees to seek ways of escaping. Unless specific employees are essential or very hard to replace, there may be no alternative but to find replacements who are more interested in making a commitment.



(The writer is the Managing Director and CEO, McQuire Rens Group of Companies. He has held regional responsibilities of two multinational companies of which one was a Fortune 500 company. He carries out consultancy assignments and management training in Dubai, India, Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. He is a much sought-after business consultant and corporate management trainer in Sri Lanka.)