Measuring and Managing Absenteeism in the Workplace

Measuring and Managing Absenteeism in the snipplaceProductivity loss collectable to absenteeism is a serious growing ch every(prenominal)enge.We comprise in an absenteeism socialization. Talking a day off and calling in unquiet is supported and encouraged by the society. Many concourses attitude is The time is overture to us (Robert F.Allen and Michael Higgens- the Absenteeism Culture. Becoming attendance oriented.)Unscheduled absenteeism is on the rise and the rates of absenteeism atomic number 18 at their highest since 1999. The major concern is that almost two out of trio employees who do not show up arent physically ill or pee-pee challenging issues.Absence measurement and screwment is an increasingly growing form of knowledge and experience that misrepresentrs apply to control and reduce absenteeism and its accruing cost.To ensure that the issue of absenteeism is effectively addressed, managers and supervisors-armed with the required guidance and training, need to u nderstand the hazard and components surrounding absenteeism in the body of work, and frankincense actively participate in the companys procedures and policies to effective curb absenteeism in the workplace.Employers attempt to cut down excessive employee absenteeism through tighter controls. They demand doctors report or use some former(a) punitive mechanisms that tar queers symptoms of absenteeism rather than its causes. The problem ordain not go away unless the underlying root causes are removed. build an attendance cultureHow should absenteeism effectively be managed? Triggers or incentives? / Carrots or sticks?IntroductionAbsenteeism from workplace has been on the increase and may be an indicative of poor morale, want of motivation, sorry building syndrome, poor organizational polities or mere indiscipline from the employees. However, many employers have introduced and implemented absence seizure seizure policies which make no distinction between absence for genuine reaso ns or illness and absence for inappropriate reasons. One of these policies is the calculation of the Bradford Factor, which alone factor ins total number and frequency of single(a) absence into account, neglecting the kind of absence.40 million days are lost each year in the UK, due to workplace absenteeism,93% of employees say cold and flu are the reason for beingness away from work, but research has shown that in reality, half of absenteeism in the workplace has nothing whatsoever to do with health. Workers decide to live away from work for a host of other reasons relating to work and individualized issues, which range from job de-motivation, low pay, lack of work life balance and occasional hangover.Absenteeism has been viewed traditionally as a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer, as a management problem and has been framed in economic terms. This report leave behind critically talk about the causes and effects of absenteeism in the workplace wit h the view to derive effective ways to measure and manage absenteeism. It will seek to understand absenteeism as an indicator of psychological, neighborly adjustment to work.1. What do we mean by Absenteeism?According to dictionary reference.com, Absenteeism after part be defined as habitual failure to appear, especially for work and other regular duty. The rate occurrence of habitual absence from work or duty.Absenteeism can be viewed as re-occurring absence from work, duty and liability, thought to reflect employee demoralization or dissatisfaction.This can alike 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 grouped into two categories Involuntary/Innocent absenteeism This is when absences are undeflectable and understandable. For instanceAbsences due to expiry in the familyPregnancy or Maternity issuesAbsences caused by illness or injuryCar/ vehicle issuesOther family related or personal issuesAccidents and cancel disastersDisability-related absenteeism- Human rights obligations volunteer/Culpable Absenteeism wilful absenteeism is an instance where an employee, out of his own freewill or laziness, chooses to stay off work. Absences in this case are avoidable. deficient work without advance notice, to go the cinema or watch footballMaking 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 good reason1.2 Causes of Absenteeism in the workplaceThere are various factors that could influence an employee to be absent at work. These factors are as follows in the flesh(predicate) 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 contrib ution 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 feel no obligation to the organisation, absenteeism comes easily to them.Age The age of an employee often affects their attitude to work. The younger the employees are often restless, they want to have fun and be with friends rather than being trussed down with responsibilities. This pinchs to lack of ownership and usually leads to unscheduled and unauthorised time off.Gender Women are usually challenged with balancing 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 further employee absenteeism miss of Motivation and Rewards The human 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 essential involve would lead to lack if motivation and commitment hence, absenteeism in the workplaceAbsence of learning culture Learning means change, thus can affect organisations effectiveness. Employees heat 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 explicit methods. In an organisation where a learning culture is absent, employees feel de-motivated, unsatisfied and feel their career growth is threatened. Hence they excuse themselves from work without authorisation in search for greater challenge s and organisations where they would gain improve themselves. nervous strain at work According to a report cited in Financial Times Stress at work is the biggest problem in European companiesVoluntary absenteeism takes place because employees are dissatisfied with their job hence they feel adjudicateed doing the work either because of the work load or unsuitable assigned roles. Egs wrongly assigning a customer service manager to manage treasury department, without adequate experience and training. Due to lack of adequate experience in the depicted object 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 impact on employee attendance to work.Leadership Style An organizations, team or unit leadership style could impact on employee commitment, job satisfaction with ameliorate or impaired participation and attendance to work.While Democratic and laissez fair leadership style encourages shared 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 alienate employees. Employees might feel less classical in the organisation, hence the need to avoid work.Work Routine 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 triumph if employees do not find their work interesting, satisfying and challenging, they feel dissatisfied, which leads to increased absenteeism in the workp laceWork life balance Organisation who not factor 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 ultimately 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 genius 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.Social Factors factors such as difficult community fortune likeHigh crime and intimidation rates which constitutes fear in employees catalyses absenteeism in the workplace. Other soc ial factors are Lack of transportation/transport facilities destitution levelsMalnutritionHIV/AIDSLabour Strikes1.3 Effects of Absenteeism in the workplaceWhen a company has an absentee problem, it has a profit problem. Absenteeism can take a deep monetary toll on any business, whether a small or multinational company. There are also other noteworthy effects associated with excessive absenteeism fall Productivity in a team of people doing interrelated tasks, if one 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 replacements or assume additional tasks for absenteesAbsenteeism causes jailbreaks in the workplace and impacts on the SLAsIt affects customer service levels, turnaround times, customer loyalty and satisfaction.It affect or disrupts effective team formation and operationsIt may create a perception of unfairness amongst employeesIt affects the bottom-line2.0 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 boilersuit Labour Effectiveness (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 staff absence rates helps to trace the pattern of employee attendance. To monitor 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 age rechanneling resources more effectively to effect the bottom-line positively.Adm inistrative costs of AbsenteeismTime consumed in controlling absenteeismTime consumed in sourcing replacements and re-assigning duties.Supervisors timeFinancial Costs this are the costs accruing formOvertime costsReplacement employee costsTraining costsOver staffing costsProductivity CostsReplaced productivity and loss of output coststhe costs of supporting replacement employeesCosts accrued in training refreshful or replacement staff/hiring temp staffSubstandard occupation2.2 Ways of Measuring AbsenteeismThe Total Tim lostNumber 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) x100The Bradford Factor or Bradford Formula According to the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development, the term was first coined d ue to its supposed connection with research undertaken by the Bradford University School of Management 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 whereB is the Bradford Factor scoreS is the total number of spells(instances) of absence of an individual over a good deal periodD is the total number of days of absence of that individual over the same set periodThe 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 points4 instances of absence one of one, one of four and one of six days (4 x 4 x 5) =80 points6 instances of absences each for two days (6 x 6 x 5) = 180 pointsHowever, 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 handicapped employees this is because certain disabilities require higher days of absence. Employers are bound by law e.g. The British Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005 (DDA) to tailor their actions to the individual circumstances of disabled employees and failure to provide these reasonable adjustments by employers may lead to civil actions or breach of DDA in employment tribunal3.0 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 th e code of conduct. The existing culture and norms influences everyones perception of the business, from the CEO to the risingly hired employee.Managements behaviour has a special impact on organisational behaviour as relates to absenteeism, this is because of its copy influence.Investigations have shown that absenteeism was/is directly traceable to the group norms established 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 thusLeadership 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 Extrinsic 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 building encourages inter personal relationships, fulfils the individuals psychological need of love and belonging , encourages organisational learning and communication 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 knowledge 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 hiking 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. Thus the leaders and manager have a great job of making effective decisions and inculcation the required 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-lineMy case study illustrating the causes, effects and how to manage absenteeism is evidenced in my reflective writing.Reflective WritingI would always wish I would not have to return to work the following day, I would call-in sick at the slightest headache. I disliked the new branch I was posted to be a team leader.Not having prior information or notice of my sudden inter-state transfer until a mail dropped in my mailbox, a Monday morning I just resumed from vacation, gave me the shock. I was to resume in the new branch with immediate effect. The re was no communication whatever from my team leader that arrangement has been made for me to move to another state where i would lead the funds transfer team. This is a clear indication of communication gap and ineffective boss and subordinate relationship, where the team leader feels less need to have inter-personal relationship with team members. Her autocratic system of leadership in the workplace does not encourage participation, shared learning, sense of belonging and team spirit, which are among an employees intrinsic expectancies from the organisation/workplaceThis autocratic, non-participatory system of leadership and lack of effective communication and team spirit became a culture instilled by the branch leader. This holistically affected all team members. Demonization, fear, lack of commitment, ineffective communication that often caused conflicts, and absenteeism creped in.The feeling of betrayal, neglect and less regard filled my heart as i journeyed down the new branch . I lost motivation and commitment in the job. I lost the feeling of being part of the organisation. This was reflected in my re-occurring absenteeism and inability to deliver on deadlinesThe sudden relocation was pressuring and put me under stress. This further increased my absenteeism rate from work till the point I tendered my resignation. This situation highlights the importance and implication of the supervisory and managers roles in the work place as regards motivation, team building, eradicating conflicts and commitment.However, I feel sober, writing this coursework having realised through my research and the module learning, the cost and other implications of employee absenteeism in organisations. This also reflects why my recommendations for an effective management of employee absenteeism points to organisational culture, effective team and group building which encourages team participation and motivation, and leadership styles and modelling.A motivational team leader or me ntor would encourage effective communication, build effective teams, build a culture of attendance and commitment through a democratic or participatory system of leadership where everyone contributes and feels the sense of responsibly and love.As a manager, having participated in this course module, I understand and appreciate my roles more. I have gained more insights on to build effective teams manage conflicts, leadership by example and ultimately, how to manage individual differences and diversity in the workplace. Getting back into work, I would be a good leader, and inspire brilliance.