Employee Absenteeism

When I mention measuring employee absenteeism the first thing that comes to your mind is firing employees because they missed too many days at work.  Right?  Well, maybe it shouldn't.  You can measure absenteeism for many purposes including workforce planning, lost wages and reduced productivity.  But can you also use it to measure employee morale?

Employee absenteeism is a major concern for employers.  Yes, there is oftentimes a sense of entitlement in the workplace that it's okay to be absent.   And where there is an excessive pattern, or a trend in the days the employee is absent, then it is time to take action. But, we also need to acknowledge that people get sick.  In those situations where you perceive a pattern of excessive absenteeism is developing, I highly recommend a discussion with the employee in order to determine if there is a potential FMLA, ADA issue to be addressed.

Absenteeism can be due to a variety of reasons.  If an employee is stressed about their workload, this may manifest itself through absenteeism.  Stress with the job routine and/or job satisfaction, the environment (cold, hot, noise) even with management (style, personality traits).  If stress is a factor, you need to discuss strategies to resolve the stressor.  If one employee is experiencing stress, perhaps others are as well.  We all have more to do and less time to do it in today's business environment.

In those instances where there appears to be an unacceptable level of absenteeism:

1. Meet with the employee.
2. Express your concern.
3. Provide the employee with an opportunity to explain themselves.

Some random statistics for you:

According to a 2012 global workforce survey, "highly engaged employees have lower 'presenteeism' (lost productivity at work) and less absenteeism than disengaged employees. The former lose an average of 7.6 days per year to presenteeism, compared with an average 14.1 days for the disengaged employees....

According to a 2010 Metlife report, "employees with eldercare responsibilities were more likely to report missed days of work. This was driven by the much higher absenteeism among younger caregiving employees, ages 18 to 39. Overall, 9% of non-caregivers missed at least one day of work over the past...

According to a 2009 survey by the National Alliance for Caregiving, "over seven in ten caregivers were employed at some time when they were caregiving (73%). Among them, two-thirds (66%) have gone in late, left early, or taken time off during the day to deal with caregiving issues (66%). One in five...