Measuring And Managing Absenteeism In The Workplace

Productivity loss due to absenteeism is a serious growth challenge. We live in an absenteeism market-gardening. Talking a day shoot and business in unappeasable is supported and elevated by the society. Many tribes attitude is The prison marge is coming to us (Robert F.Allen and Michael Higgens- the Absenteeism horticulture. Becoming attending oriented.) Unscheduled absenteeism is on the rise and the rates of absenteeism be at their highest since 1999. The study concern is that almost twain out of three employees who do non show up bent physically ill or drag challenging issues.Absence measurement and management is an increasingly growing body of cognition and experience that managers apply to control and reduce absenteeism and its accruing be. To ensure that the issue of absenteeism is efficaciously addressed, managers and supervisors-armed with the overlookd guidance and training, need to understand the circumstances and actors surrounding absenteeism in the pruneplace, and therefore actively participate in the familiaritys procedures and policies to upright curb absenteeism in the usageplace.Employers attempt to cut down profligate employee absenteeism finished and through tighter controls. They demand doctors report or use or so other punitive mechanisms that targets symptoms of absenteeism sooner than its causes. The problem go away not go away unless the underlying root causes are removed. Building an attendance cultureHow should absenteeism stiffly be managed? Triggers or incentives? / Carrots or sticks?IntroductionAbsenteeism from deformplace has been on the increase and may be an indicative of poor morale, omit of motivation, sick building syndrome, poor organizational polities or mere indiscipline from the employees. However, numerous employers have introduced and implemented absence policies which make no distinction surrounded by absence for genuine reasons or illness and absence for inappropriate reasons.One of these policies is the computing of the Bradford component, which only factors total itemize and absolute frequency of individualist absence into account, neglecting the diversity of absence. 40 million age are lost each course of study in the UK, due to be love lifeplace absenteeism, 93% of employees say cold and flu are the reason for being away from defecate, but re reckon has shownthat in reality, half of absenteeism in the cipherplace has nothing whatsoever to do with health. stoolers determine to stay away from fix for a host of other reasons relating to work and personal issues, which range from air de-motivation, low pay, lack of work vitality balance and occasional hangover.Absenteeism has been viewed traditionally as a breach of an unsaid contract between employee and employer, as a management problem and has been frame in in economic terms. This report bequeath critically discuss the causes and effects of absenteeism in the workplace with the view to make out effective ways to measure and manage absenteeism. It impart seek to understand absenteeism as an index result of mental, complaisant adjustment to work. 1. What do we mean by Absenteeism? tally to dictionary reference.com, Absenteeism after part be defined as habitual failure to appear, especially for work and other regular duty. The rate occurrence of habitual absence from work or duty. Absenteeism foundation be viewed as re-occurring absence from work, duty and obligation, musical theme to reflect employee demoralization or dissatisfaction. This can also be viewed as a breach of the implicit contract that exists between the employer and the employed. Simply put, ill to report to or stay at work when scheduled is tagged absenteeism. 1.1 Absenteeism can be crowded into two categories Involuntary/Innocent absenteeism This is when absences are unavoidable and understandable. For instance Absences due to death in the family Pregnancy or Maternity issues Absences c aused by illness or injury Car/ vehicle issues Other family related or personal issues Accidents and natural disasters Disability-related absenteeism- Human rights obligations intended/Culpable Absenteeism volunteer absenteeism is an instance where an employee, out of his own freewill or laziness, chooses to stay run into work. Absences in this case are avoidable. Missing work without advance notice, to go the cinema or watch football reservation excuses for consistent late coming to workDeceitfully/fraudulently applying for sick leave or calling in sickFailure to report to work as scheduled or showing up late for no good reason 1.2 Causes of Absenteeism in the workplace in that respect are various factors that could ferment an employee to be absent at work. These factors are as followsPersonal FactorsPersonal location individuals posses different attitudes and bring these attitudes forth to the workplace. Employees with strong workplace ethics will respect their work and ap preciate their contribution to the organisation and as such, will not take extra off from the workplace. Conversely, employees with low or without work ethics are in- disciplined and have behavioural issues. Because they facial expression no obligation to the organisation, absenteeism comes easily to them. Age The age of an employee often collide withs their attitude to work.The junior the employees are often restless, they want to have fun and be with friends sort of than being tied down with responsibilities. This leads to lack of ownership and usually leads to unscheduled and unauthorised time off. Gender Women are usually challenged with balancing their time between work and home. Their families are always the utmost priority, thus they would rather be absent from work to sort out family issues leanplace FactorsOrganizational Culture Every organisation is a culture with its own norms. An organisation with an infix absenteeism culture, screen played by its management and su pervisors lack of load would encourage further employee absenteeismLack of Motivation and Rewards The relationship between the organisation and its employees is influenced by what motives them to work and the rewards and fulfilment they derive from it. Inability of managers or employers to motivate employees and meet their unessential and intrinsic needs would lead to lack if motivation and commitment hence, absenteeism in the workplaceAbsence of learning culture Learning means change, thus can affectorganisations effectiveness. Employees love to work in an organisation where they would improve themselves and their career through organisational learning and knowledge management, which could be inculcated through coaching, mentoring, trainings and other explicit methods. In an organisation where a learning culture is absent, employees feel de-motivated, unsatisfied and feel their career growth is threatened.Hence they excuse themselves from work without authorisation in search for greater challenges and organisations where they would gain improve themselves. Stress at work According to a report cited in Financial Times Stress at work is the biggest problem in European companies Voluntary absenteeism takes place because employees are dissatisfied with their melodic line hence they feel stressed doing the work every because of the work load or unsuitable assigned roles. Egs wrongly delegate a customer swear out manager to manage treasury department, without fit experience and training.Due to lack of adequate experience in the field and obdurate timed deliverables and tasks, he feels stressed and harassed in the role and thus breaks down into stress or depression and seeks sick leave and abandons the job. Voluntary Absenteeism also takes place where the employees feel there is a strain on their psychological contract with the employer, this indirectly erupts lack of organizational commitment. This strain could arise to stress and impact on employee attenda nce to work.Leadership Style An organizations, police squad or unit leadership style could impact on employee commitment, job satisfaction with improved or impaired participation and attendance to work. turn Democratic and laissez fair leadership style encourages divided decision making, shared responsibility, creativity and participation and can be highly motivational, which enhances police squad upwork and interpersonal relations. compulsive and paternalistic leadership styles could de-motivate and alienate employees. Employees might feel less burning(prenominal) in the organisation, hence the need to avoid work. Work Routine and lack of Change doing the same job or task over a long tip of time can get monotonous.The employees get blase and thus might choose to take unauthorised time off to do something he considers interesting than going to work. Job Satisfaction if employees do not find their work interesting, satisfying and challenging, they feel dissatisfied, which le adsto increased absenteeism in the workplace Work life balance Organisation who not factor employees roles and work life such that a balance is stroked with work and the individuals personal life commitments and family would experience increased employee absenteeism. encroach in the workplace ultimately increases chances of employee absenteeism.Lack of police squad character A team that lacks unity, synergy and good interpersonal relationship amongst its members, will be a weak and unproductive. Such team members will lack team spirit-the spirit that bonds individuals in a team. This lack of team spirit can de-motivate team members, make them work in isolation, they would lack the consciousness of belonging, love and satisfaction. There would exist, fears of the unknown, lack of trust for team members. These feelings will encourage an employee to stay off work. Social Factors factors such as difficult community circumstances wish High crime and intimidation rates which constitu tes fear in employees catalyses absenteeism in the workplace. Other social factors are Lack of swayation/transport facilitiesPoverty levels Malnutrition HIV/AIDS Labour Strikes 1.3 Effects of Absenteeism in the workplaceWhen a company has an absentee problem, it has a profit problem. Absenteeism can take a deep monetary toll on any business, whether a small or international company. There are also other significant effects associated with excessive absenteeism Decreased Productivity in a team of people doing coordinated tasks, if one persistent remains absent or fails to deliver, it creates a eye mask effect on productivity. It affects employee/team morale this is due to the fact that excess stress are places on employees who act as replacements or impound additional tasks for absenteesAbsenteeism causes disruptions in the workplace and impacts on the SLAs It affects customer service levels, turnaround times, customer loyalty and satisfaction. It affect or disrupts effective team formation and operations It may create a perception of seediness amongst employeesIt affects the bottom-line 2.0 Measuring Absenteeism2.1 Why measure absenteeism?It is pertinent to measure the rate of absenteeism in the workplace. Measuring employees absenteeism is a good way to measure general Labour Effectiveness (OLE) in the workplace, which is a key motion indicator (KPI) that measures the utilization, performance and quality of the work personnel and its impact on productivity. Monitoring module absence rates helps to trace the conventionality of employee attendance.To monitor and check fallen times, in the workplace, to derive and measure resources and comprise incurred due to employee absenteeism with the aim of formulate effective methods to manage absenteeism in the workplace. In measuring absenteeism in the workplace, we derive the ratio of its administrative, financial and productivity cost to the organisation which will enable development of strategies to cu rb absenteeism while rechanneling resources more effectively to effect the bottom-line positively.Administrative cost of AbsenteeismTime consumed in cont ringlet absenteeism Time consumed in sourcing replacements and re-assigning duties. Supervisors time Financial Costs this are the costs accruing form extra time costs Replacement employee costs Training costs Over staffing costs Productivity Costs Replaced productivity and loss of output costs the costs of supporting replacement employees Costs accrued in training bleak or replacement staff/hiring temp staff Substandard production2.2 shipway of Measuring AbsenteeismThe Total Tim lost Number of person-days lost through job absence during period X 100 (Average number of employees) x (Number of Work days)This rate also can be based on number of hours instead of number of days. The individual frequency formula This is calculated as thus Individual frequency = (Num of Absent Employees/Average Number of Employees) x100 The Bradford Fa ctor or Bradford Formula According to the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development, the term was first coined due to its supposed connection with research undertaken by the Bradford University drill of Management in the 1980s. It was developed as a way of highlighting the misappropriate level of disruption on an organisations performance that can be caused by short-term employee absence compared to incidences of prolonged absence. In contrast, it is considered short-sighted and unlikely to be successful which could lead to staff dissatisfaction and grievances. The Bradford factor can be calculated as followsB= S2 x D where B is the Bradford Factor score S is the total number of spells(instances) of absence of an individual over a set period D is the total number of days of absence of that individual over the same set period The set period is typically set as a rolling 52 week period. For example1 instance of absence with a duration of 15 days (1x 1 x 5)= 5 points 4 instance s of absence one of one, one of four and one of six days (4 x 4 x 5) =80 points 6 instances of absences each for two days (6 x 6 x 5) = 180 points However, the Bradford factor has been critiqued for its express mail and short-sightedness in effectively measuring absenteeism, this is because it only factors total number and frequency of individual absence into account, neglecting the kind of absence.Again, the Bradford factor is a generic work at and would be inappropriate to implement on disenable employees this is because certain disabilities require higher days of absence. Employers are bound by law e.g. The British Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005 (DDA) to tailor their actions to the individual circumstances ofdisabled employees and failure to provide these reasonable adjustments by employers may lead to civilian actions or breach of DDA in employment tribunal 3.0 Managing absenteeismAbsenteeism A heathen problemEvery organisation is a culture, with its own norms that constitute the expected, supported and accepted ways of behaving. These norms are most times unwritten and advice people on the economy of conduct. The existing culture and norms influences everyones perception of the business, from the CEO to the newly hire employee. Managements behaviour has a special impact on organisational behaviour as relates to absenteeism, this is because of its modelling influence. Investigations have shown that absenteeism was/is directly traceable to the ag root word norms established by leadership, the work environment and group expectations. Each group had similar illness records, it was the norms that dictated, and almost predictably, whether people showed up for work.Absenteeism is often symptoms of bigger organisational problems and can be managed as thus Leadership modelling and commitment Managerial commitments and participatory culture have an important impact on attendance. E.g. in a retail company, a manager who demonstrated teensy-ween sy commitment to attendance practices recorded one of the highest absenteeism rates in his organisation. Work motivation and rewards Motivation in the work place is the driving force to achieve employee job satisfaction and commitment. This motivation could be Extrinsic or Intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation relates to the tangible rewards e.g. Salary, security, promotion and conditions of work.While,Intrinsic motivation relates to the psychological rewards which includes a sense of challenge and achievement, participation and appreciation from the employer. According to Maslows hierarchy of needs the expectancies of an employee from the employer are captured as thus- Motivated employees overcome obstacles to make it to work. The key to reducing employee absenteeism is to create a culture where employees want to come to work. Effective Groups and Team Building groups and teams are essential features of the work pattern of organisations.These include formal and informal groups, project a nd virtual teams. Effective group and team buildingencourages inter personal relationships, fulfils the individuals psychological need of love and belonging, encourages organisational learning and communication while reducing conflicts in the organisation. This ultimately gives employees, sense of belonging and contribution, job satisfaction and an increased love for the job which will be evidenced in attendance rate. Recruitment and selection Employers should conjure up employees with good attendance records. This information should be included in references.Employee druthers and training Attendance norms should be established the first day on the job. These norms are inculcated at inductions and orientation sessions. Performance Appraisal this can make headway employee attendance rates. Management should attach attendance rates to performance appraisals, if employees are aware that attendance would be a part of their appraisal, they would minimise redundant absence from work.C onclusionOrganisational culture is a key factor that affects the norms and modus operandi of an organisation. Thus the leaders and manager have a great job of making effective decisions and inculcation the required culture through policies and examples. Creating an attendance-oriented culture requires a eject corporate commitment to encourage attendance rather than manage absenteeism. This would be a significant shift because an absenteeism culture not only cost millions of pounds, but also impedes the development of human resources, reduces organisations emulous advantage and affects the bottom-line My case study illustrating the causes, effects and how to manage absenteeism is evidenced in my reflective writing.