Executive Summary

Firstly it became instantly clear in this report highlights poor levels of absenteeism, and it is obvious that management and supervisors act on absenteeism as soon as possible to better the department, organisation and the employees. It is also tremendously important for staff to know that absenteeism should and will not be tolerated anymore; otherwise it would lead to worsening absenteeism and a host of other negative effects on the workers and on the organisation.

We have mentioned instances like the Royal Mail Group to comprehend that there are many success stories in business where absenteeism was reduced to an acceptable rate instead of stopping days of sickness.

Introduction

According to Mr. Haakon Overli "Workplace absenteeism is one of the last company overheads and it is out of control". Absence from work is not always associated with illness and contains high outlays for the UK Economy. "The rate of sickness is not uniform across industry, region, occupation, age group or even country". (Roberts, P. 2003).The Report contains information and facts about Absenteeism in the UK Industry and also has a comparison to overseas countries. Tescos newly introduced pilot scheme of not paying their staff for sick leave within the first three days of "sickness". (Asda and Morrisons already refuse to pay the first three sick days.) The introduction of this pilot scheme stems as the main catalyst for my writing of this report. Even though the absent rate is lower in the retail sector than in the Industry (7.5 days pp / 10 days pp) it is still quite important to face this threat.(Grocer 2004) Used Sources are mainly from Magazines as for instance Financial Times are but as well from Journals, theme related books and Internet Articles.

Issues and Facts about Absenteeism

Absenteeism in general

There has been an amazing growth in the number of days taken off because of psychological and stress-related illnesses in the last couple of years. This might be, either to more hectic "working conditions - more demanding clients and heavier responsibilities - or to less stoical workers, who shirk at the first opportunity rather than embrace challenges as they come". It has shown that small organisations suffer significantly less absenteeism than their larger counterparts, with 4.9 lost days per employee per year, 30 per cent less than the 6.8 days average. "The reasons are clear: in a small company, workers have more contact with senior staff, a clear sense of the goals of the company and make a contribution that plays a key role in the organisation as a whole. In a large organisation, employees frequently lack all of these things; and overemployment makes it easy for responsibilities to be passed on to one's colleagues". Appendix(1)(Financial Times 2004)

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Costs of Absenteeism in the UK

Published and surveyed by The Confederation of British Industry (CDI) in 2003 revealed £11.6 billion was paid to pay and cover staff absence, which is an average cost of £476 per employee. (Mind your Business 2004). This is an improvement on the previous years. It is at lowest rate in 15 years but costs are still growing presumably for the rising price of labour. (Roberts, P. 2003)

"Lower rates of absence means costs are likely to be lower, overtime bills may be reduced; business planning will be made easier; good attenders will not feel ...

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