Effect of Absenteeism
The consequences of absence can be categorized as negative or positive. Organizations tend to be more focused on negative organizational consequences of absence rather than positive. Some negative organizational consequences include :
Productivity loss.
Increased costs due to overtime.
Staffing replacement.
There may also be negative individual consequences of absence such as :
Loss of pay.
Discipline.
Altered job perceptions.
The cost of absence varies with organization type and with individuals. Costs include:
a) Increased overtime, b) staffing, and c) replacement costs as well as decreased productivity.
If absence is paid, salaries and benefits are also costs to the organization.
Many organizations do not realize that they may have established an absence culture based on their absence policy. Certain absence policies have the effect of either encouraging or discouraging absenteeism. Some organizational policies not only tolerate but truly reward employee absenteeism. 60% of total absenteeism appeared to be avoidable and the policy variable explained more variance in avoidable absences.
Absence Culture
An absence culture is defined as "the set of shared understandings about absence legitimacy and the established custom of practice of employee absence behavior and its control." An absence culture is marked by both the employee's beliefs about the absence norms and the levels of trust employees have in management. If there is high cultural salience, employees have similar beliefs about the absence norms. If the shared belief is that fairly regular, interval absence is acceptable then there may be high salience, but absence rates may still be high. There are four types of absence cultures:
1. Dependent.
2. Moral.
3. Fragmented.
4. Conflictual.
Dependent absence cultures are ones that are low in salience and high in trust. These cultures often result in deviant absence.
Moral absence cultures are high in trust and salience and often result in constructive absence.
Fragmented cultures are low in trust and salience and result in calculative absences. Lastly, Conflictual cultures are high in salience and low in trust and are characterized by defiant absence.
Measuring Absenteeism
No of persons-days cost due to absence * 100
(Average no of Employees)*(No of Workdays)
Controlling Absenteeism
Track staff absences
Since most small businesses will not have a person dedicated to personnel/human resources; tracking absences will often be carried out by a secretary/administrator/receptionist. This does not need to become another cost burden, in terms of time and money. Information systems and software packages are available to control the paper chase, but a workable spreadsheet will store much the same data, especially when there are a smaller number of employees.
At present, the Data Protection Act instructs employers not to hold records about an employee's sickness without their permission. As a result, many employers have inaccurate records, making it difficult to calculate Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or compile documentation for tribunal cases.
Understand absence allowances
Employers and employees must be aware of the regulations that govern absence. This should be documented in the employee handbook and communicated regularly.
Involuntary absence
Employees should give notification of their absence by 9am. If they have been absent for fewer than seven days, employees should complete a self-certification form, upon their return to work. If a sickness absence is longer than seven days then the employer should ask for a doctor's statement to confirm this.
Since December 1999, employees are allowed to take dependant leave if a dependant needs to be cared for. A dependant is defined as the employee's spouse, parent, child, someone who lives in the same household or any person who reasonably relies on the employee for assistance on an occasion when the person falls ill or is injured or assaulted or to make arrangements for the provision of care in the event of illness or injury. There is no qualifying period of employment before this right is granted. The employee and employer should agree on the duration of the absence and generally it should be long enough to cope with the initial crisis. Jury leave is also a legitimate absence, so too is attending ante-natal classes.
Voluntary absence
Under the Working Time Regulations, employees are entitled to four weeks' leave; bank holidays can be included within this entitlement. Annual leave should be on a pro rata basis and a process should be implemented to track its allocation.
Expectant mothers regardless of length of service are entitled to at least 18 weeks statutory maternity leave, which is extended to 29 weeks after they have completed more than one year's service. Parental leave, introduced in late 1999, entitles an employee with a year's service to take a total of 13 weeks' leave until the child's fifth birthday, if their baby was born or adopted between 15 December 1994 and 15 December 1999 (The Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2001, which came into force on 10 January 2002).
You should have a written policy in place on other types of absences, such as compassionate leave (e.g. the death of an immediate family member), time off for examinations, paternity leave or attending a Territorial Army camp. Often the length of leave, paid or unpaid, is at the discretion of the employer depending upon the circumstances, but it is important not to show preferential treatment.
Keeping absence at an acceptable level
Records will identify trends of unusually high levels of absence. An employer should explore the reasons for absence with the individual, and if an unsatisfactory level of attendance continues then the employer should consider using the company's disciplinary procedure.
Lateness and poor time keeping are similarly disruptive and can be handled in the same way.
If absence appears on a larger scale then the root of the problem should be addressed immediately. A short-term solution to incentivise staff to attend work is to financially reward those with excellent attendance records. A longer-term strategy should also be considered, beginning with an assessment of staff morale.
Action Checklist:
Track staff absences
Understand absence allowances
Keep a clear and updated policy in the employee handbook
Identify reasons for high absence
Follow persistent absence through to a disciplinary procedure
Employee Turnover
Introduction
One of the problems facing the industry today is employee turnover. With unemployment rates reaching the lowest levels in recent history, recruitment and hiring employees is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry? Intelligent owners and management companies are constantly recruiting to insure that when a staff position becomes open they have a list of qualified potential candidates to fill the slots. By using a clearly defined hiring plan, one can insure that their properties are staffed with motivated and competent employees.
It is well known that better hiring practices reduce turnover as well as potential lawsuits by disgruntled employees. The most effective recruiting comes from happy, successful employees whose positive attitudes about the company and the property lure others to join them. Happy, successful employees offer better tenant and vendor relations that naturally lead to tenant retention and lower operating costs.
Factors for Employee Turnover
Psychological factors
Every individual comes across one or the other psychological problem ranging from personal problem i.e. ego, complex and family problem i.e. problem in married life, over burdened with family responsibilities. In such cases it is seen that due to mental trauma an employee shows withdrawal from his job responsibilities. The solution to these problem is continuous counseling so that employee understands that coming on job will provide him different social and work environment helping in reducing tension as his attention diverts and mentally he is more occupied.
Physiological problems
Physiological problems like acute sickness-common cough cold and fever and chronic illness like cancer and TB are the causes that prevent an employee from attending duties. Hospital's Medical Benefit Policy can be utilized for continuous monitoring of these employees.
Job related problems
Job description does not match the employee's skill set, either he is over skilled or under skilled leading to job dissatisfaction and in long range frustration of the employees. In some cases employee may not be satisfied with salary structure as it may not be on par with salary structure of other hospitals. Due to increase in number of hospitals better job opportunities are available where an employee has opportunity for vertical growth in designation, job responsibilities and better salary. These entire factors taken together are amply responsible for turnover of the employees.
Supervisory style like pointing out even slightest deviation from set standards of discharging duties lead to frustration in employees and so a employee refrains from his work during the work hours of such a supervisor. This tendency is more observed in menial staff.
Immediately before the peak of job responsibilities employee show a tendency of absenteeism. In case of nurses it is generally observed that immediately after completion of night duty for a fixed number of days many of nurses do not report on day succeeding the day of completion of night duty.
Compulsory retirement and voluntary retirement schemes are also responsible for employee turnover in organization but these are uncontrollable factors and beyond control of any organization.
Measuring Employee Turnover
No of Employee Separation during the year * 100
Average No of Employees during same period
Effect of Employee Turnover on Organization
Direct costs include recruitment, selection, and training of new people. Much time and expense go into this process.
Indirect costs include such things as increased workloads and overtime expenses for coworkers, as well as reduced productivity associated with low employee morale.
Continuity and quality of service delivery is also affected resulting in irreparable loss to the organization.
Reducing Employee Turnover
The major steps that can help in controlling turnover can be:
First, hire the right people and continue to develop their careers.
Providing job responsibilities according to qualification and skill sets of the candidates.
Develop an overall strategic compensation package.
Developing employee benefit schemes like educational loan, housing loan and vehicle loan.
Developing career progression plan.
Training and development for higher job responsibilities for Job enrichment.
Although many companies use contract employees to address fluctuations in business, working side by side with someone who is making twice the rate of pay without any commitment or loyalty to the company can be a real morale killer, so we have to try avoiding it.
