How Absenteeism Affects Businesses
As a business owner or manager have you ever experienced the thrill of having your team really come together and start to grow almost overnight? And then sadly, have it fall apart either slowly or rapidly? I am sure you will agree that partially or totally this was caused by chronic or prolonged absenteeism. What may seem like a harmless day or two of staying away from the office can wind up to be quite costly, with millions, and sometimes even billions, depending on the industry, being lost yearly overall. It affects more than what one sees on the budget sheet – intangible things like employee morale can be hit badly too. Here’s how absenteeism affects businesses:
A business, when it is operating properly, could be visualized as a large machine – all the parts are efficiently working to make sure that the maximum results are achieved. It can overcome some small difficulties and still keep functioning as intended. It’s when those parts are actually missing not just slightly malfunctioning, that things can slow down or even grind to a complete halt – which hurts everyone else involved.
Absenteeism – when important people can’t be counted on to show up to work on a given day – can be one of those things that can stop a company’s progress in its tracks. Important phone calls or emails go unanswered… which can lead to clients feeling neglected and tempted to take their business elsewhere. Co-workers can feel the burden of constantly having to try to cover for the chronically absent person… and that can lead to sloppy work and employee burnout.
Among the other listed things, illness is a reason that people call out for work. They may not be entirely truthful when they use this excuse. There are some days when they just don’t feel like going into work and they may not have any more days off to use… so they just say that they are sick. Whatever the truth of the matter is there is definitely a percentage that are ill to one degree or another.
Another problem that absenteeism presents is that it can make unqualified or untrained people have to try to pick up the slack. That can lead to errors that are dangerous to a company – like a poorly prepared earnings report – or to the well being of others, like a workplace accident. Asking people to do beyond their scope is often putting the company in a precarious position.
Other than making a very unpopular rule such as requiring that employees who miss time due to illness or a family emergency produce documentation like a doctor’s note or something similar, it’s very difficult for a company to be able to tell whether the absences are legitimate or not. Also, if they seem to treat every situation with skepticism rather than seeming supportive, they run the risk of lowering employee morale that way. People do want to feel trusted, and this could be interpreted otherwise.
There are some possible solutions, like having mandatory sick time. People argue that it will cost the company money and that it’s debatable whether employees won’t abuse that system either. Something needs to be done, though…
Did you know that statistically, having health screenings at health fairs could help cut down absenteeism if things are caught very early. An employee could then take care of the problem or learn how to properly regulate it before it reached a stage where it could lead to a lot of missed time.
Corporate Wellness Solutions helps companies of all sizes in New York City conduct health fairs, along with seminars on nutritional eating on the job and how to handle stress. Call us at 212-537-4421 to learn more.
