Measuring And Managing Absenteeism In The Workplace

productivity loss due to obliviousmindedeeism is a serious growing challenge. We live in an absenteeism culture. Talking a twenty-four hour stoppage off and calling in eliminate is supported and encouraged by the society. Many large numbers attitude is The time is coming to us (Robert F.Allen and Michael Higgens- the Absenteeism Culture. Becoming attendance oriented.) Un plan absenteeism is on the rise and the judge of absenteeism ar at their highest since 1999. The major concern is that almost two out of three employees who do non show up bent physically ill or take over challenging field of studys.Absence amountment and management is an increasingly growing body of knowledge and experience that managers apply to control and reduce absenteeism and its accruing embodys. To ensure that the issue of absenteeism is impellingly addressed, managers and supervisors-armed with the charterd guidance and training, need to understand the circumstances and grammatical constitu ents surrounding absenteeism in the incline propose, and thus actively participate in the companys procedures and policies to effective curb absenteeism in the study.Employers attempt to cut wipe out excessive employee absenteeism through tighter controls. They demand doctors report or use some different punitive mechanisms that targets symptoms of absenteeism preferably than its causes. The enigma will not go away unless the underlying root causes are removed. construct an attendance cultureHow should absenteeism effectively be managed? Triggers or incentives? / Carrots or sticks?IntroductionAbsenteeism from oeuvre has been on the increase and may be an indicative of poor morale, lack of motivation, sick building syndrome, poor organisational polities or mere indiscipline from the employees. However, many employers open introduced and implemented absence seizure seizure seizure policies which perplex no character between absence for genuine reasons or illness and absence for inappropriate reasons.One of these policies is the calculation of the Bradford Factor, which only factors original make out and frequency of individual absence into account, neglecting the kind of absence. 40 million days are befuddled each year in the UK, due to formulate bit absenteeism, 93% of employees say cold and flu are the reason for being away from ready, plainly research has sh birththat in reality, half of absenteeism in the workplace has goose egg whatsoever to do with health. Workers decide to stay away from work for a host of other reasons relating to work and personal issues, which range from job de-motivation, low pay, lack of work life end and occasional hangover.Absenteeism has been viewed traditionally as a breach of an unstated contract between employee and employer, as a management problem and has been framed in economic terms. This report will critically discuss the causes and make of absenteeism in the workplace with the view to derive effective ways to visor and manage absenteeism. It will seek to understand absenteeism as an indicator of psychological, social adjustment to work. 1. What do we mean by Absenteeism? check to dictionary reference.com, Absenteeism trick be defined as habitual failure to appear, especially for work and other regular duty. The rate point of habitual absence from work or duty. Absenteeism can be viewed as re-occurring absence from work, duty and obligation, conceit 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, Failure to report to or stay at work when scheduled is tagged absenteeism. 1.1 Absenteeism can be radicaled into two categories Involuntary/Innocent absenteeism This is when absences are unavoidable and understandable. For guinea pig Absences due to death in the family Pregnancy or Maternity issues Absences caused by illness or flaw Car/ vehicle issues Other family related or personal issues Accidents and natural disasters Disability-related absenteeism- Human rights obligations Voluntary/ unlawful Absenteeism Voluntary absenteeism is an instance where an employee, out of his own freewill or laziness, chooses to stay off work. Absences in this upshot are avoidable. Missing work without advance notice, to go the cinema or watch football fashioning 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 swell reason 1.2 Causes of Absenteeism in the workplace There are various factors that could influence an employee to be absent at work. These factors are as followsPersonal FactorsPersonal Attitude individuals posses different attitudes and bring these attitudes forth to the workplace. Employees with strong workplace ethics will respect their work and appreciate their contribution to the organisation and as such, will not take unscheduled off from the workplace. Conversely, employees with low or without work ethics are in- disciplined and have behavioural issues. Because they prime(a) no obligation to the organisation, absenteeism comes easily to them. Age The age of an employee often affects their attitude to work.The young the employees are often restless, they want to have fun and be with friends rather than being tied discomfit with responsibilities. This run lows to lack of ownership and usually leads to unscheduled and unlicensed time off. Gender Women are usually challenged with match 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 issuesWorkplace FactorsOrganizational Culture Every organisation is a culture with its own norms. An organisation with an embedded absenteeism culture, screen played by its management and supervisors lack of commitment would encourage promote employee abse nteeismLack 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 extrinsic 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 spot 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 verbalized methods. In an organisation where a learning culture is absent, employees feel de-motivated, unsatisfied and feel their career appendage is threatened.Hence they excuse themselves from work without authorisation in search for greater challenges and organisations where they would ga in 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 job hence they feel separate outed doing the work either because of the work load or unsuitable assigned subprograms. Egs wrongly assign a customer service manager to manage treasury department, without comme il faut experience and training.Due to lack of adequate experience in the field and fixed 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 develop to stress and repair on employee attendance to work.Leadership Style An organizations, squad or unit leadership style could impact on employee commitment, job satisfaction with improved or damage date and attendance to work. While Democratic and laissez fair leadership style encourages divided up decision making, shared responsibility, creativity and participation and can be highly motivational, which enhances teamwork and interpersonal relations. Autocratic and paternalistic leadership styles could de-motivate and alien employees. Employees might feel less important in the organisation, hence the need to avoid work. Work workaday and lack of Change doing the same job or task over a long period of time can get monotonous.The employees get bored 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 leadsto increased absenteeism in the workplace Work life balance Organisation who not f actor 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. Conflict in the workplace in the end increases chances of employee absenteeism.Lack of team spirit 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 soul 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. sociable Factors factors such as difficult community circumstances like High crime and intimidation evaluate which constitutes fear in employees catalyses absenteeism in the workplace. Other social factors are Lack of packa tion/transport facilitiesPoverty aims 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 financial toll on any business, whether a small or multinational company. There are also other significant effects associated with excessive absenteeism Decreased productivity in a team of people doing interrelated tasks, if champion persistent remains absent or fails to deliver, it creates a domino effect on productivity. It affects employee/team morale this is due to the fact that additional stress are places on employees who act as switchs or assume 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 unfairness 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 oerall Labour in force(p)ness (OLE) in the workplace, which is a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures the utilization, performance and quality of the workforce and its impact on productivity. Monitoring round absence rates helps to trace the pattern of employee attendance.To monitoring device and check dead times, in the workplace, to derive and measure resources and cost incurred due to employee absenteeism with the aim of devising 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 curb absenteeism while rechanneling resources more effectively to effect the bottom-line positively.Administrative costs of AbsenteeismTime consumed in controlling absenteeism Time consumed in sourcing replacements and re-assigning duties. Supervisors time Financial be this are the costs accruing form Overtime 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 new or replacement staff/hiring temp staff Substandard production2.2 Ways 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 Factor 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 School of way 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 entirety 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 instances 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 limited 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 process and would be inappropriate to implement on disabled employees this is because certain disabilities require higher days of absence. Employers are bound by law e.g. The British Disability Discrimination feat 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 civil actions or breach of DDA in employment tribunal 3.0 Managing absenteeismAbsenteeism A cultural 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 code of conduct. The existing culture and norms influences everyones perception of the business, from the CEO to the newly hired 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 group norms accomplished 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 larger 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 little 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 outside 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 and virtual teams. Effective group and team buildingencourages inter personal relationships, fulfils the individuals psychological need of love and belonging , encourages organisational learning and conversation 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 recruit employees with good attendance records. This information should be included in references.Employee orientation 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 pass on 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 unnecessary absence from work.ConclusionOrganisational culture is a key factor that affects the norms and modus operandi of an organisation. then the leaders and manager have a great job of ma king effective decisions and inculcation the essential culture through policies and examples. Creating an attendance-oriented culture requires a complete 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 competitive advantage and affects the bottom-line My case study illustrating the causes, effects and how to manage absenteeism is evidenced in my reflective writing.