The Cost And Causes of Absenteeism

Absenteeism continues to be a primary factor towards the decreased productivity and effect on companies finances across the United States today.

Those employed can miss work for a variety of reasons, those of which aren’t always credible. However, there are some instances when the reason for an absence is legitimate, such as those who are experiencing bullying and harassment, depression, overwhelming stress, injuries and or illness.

The Gallup-Shareware Well-Being Index recently surveyed 94,000 workers across 14 major occupations in the U.S. Of the 77% of workers who fit the survey’s definition of having a chronic health condition; such as asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obesity, the total annual cost related to lost productivity totaled around $84 billion.

The professional occupation, excluding nurses, physicians and teachers, totaled at number one for the most annual cost of lost productivity due to absenteeism at around $24.2, followed by managers and executives at $15.7, continuing with service workers at $8.5 out of the 84 billion dollars totaled.

According to “Absenteeism: The Bottom-Line Killer,” a publication of the workforce solution company Circadian, unscheduled absenteeism cost roughly $3,600 per year for each hourly worker and $2,650 each year for salaried employees. The cost can be attributed to many factors including wages paid to absent employees, high-cost replacement workers and administrative costs of managing absenteeism.

To address problems such as these, some companies, cities and states have moved towards a mandatory paid sick-leave policy, where each employee receives a specified number of days each year to use due to illness or injury. Opponents of mandatory sick leave argue that it will ultimately cost businesses more money and eventually lead to increased layoffs.

In addition, opponents have concerns that employees will use all their sick days whether or not they are being used for the correct moral reasons. Advocates of such a move, however, argue that paid sick leave makes economic sense because it will help stop the spread of communicable diseases in the workplace, resulting in fewer instances of absenteeism in the long run.

The Centers for Disease Control, states that paid sick leave could have an especially significant impact on the food service industry, where it estimates that sick food handlers are responsible for 53% of notorious (a particularly worse form of the stomach virus) outbreaks. One sick food handler could theoretically infect dozens or even hundreds of people, resulting in a larger number of absences that could have been avoided simply if the employee had stayed home by using a sick day.

Not just in the U.S., but all over the world it can be challenging for employers to effectively monitor, control and reduce absenteeism. However, it is important for employers to remember that they should consider the added costs associated with a sick employee who spreads and illness that gets the whole division, or a lot of their customers sick.

In an effort to reduce absenteeism, some companies offer incentives for going to work, such as earned time off. Other firms might try a more proactive approach by enforcing policies that focus on responses to employee heath concerns, including physical health, psychological health, work-home balance, environmental health and economic health.

Due to the billions of dollars each year lost in productivity, wages, poor quality of goods/services and excess management time due to the absenteeism rates in the U.S., companies are striding to address this problem most logically. The ultimate goal is for happier employees that will be more able and motivated to go to work each day, resulting in increased productivity and higher moral for the individual workers, as well as the entire staff.

Although that these employee wellness strategies may be expensive to maintain and applied, they can ultimately have a positive effect on a company as a whole.