Employee absenteeism is that workplace demon that is hard to tame if it goes out of hand even once. It impacts productivity and profits directly. Thus, it is very important to calculate it rightly and then take measures to control the same.
However, HRs are seen struggling with this workplace woe quite a lot. What can they even do if a working professional demands holidays after stating reasons like death, sickness and sorts?
So, in this blog, we tell you the ways to control absenteeism along with some basic knowledge and formula.
Absenteeism types
They can be broadly categorised as Planned and Unplanned absences and excused and unexcused absences. If the planned absences are not frequent, they won’t impact productivity drastically. However, if the absences become chronic, they become a matter of concern.
But, there is another kind of absenteeism as well that barely gets noticed. The habit of coming late, taking too long breaks, leaving early also comes under absenteeism.
Most of the times the unexcused absences are not taken into account during calculation. Because of this mostly, the results that the employee absenteeism calculation shows is wrong. When the inputs are wrong, the corrective measures will also not yield the expected results.
The right formula is-
[(# of unexcused absences)/total period] x 100 = % of Absenteeism
Although according to employer zero would be the ideal absenteeism percentage, this isn’t possible. There will always be absenteeism as there are emergencies in everyone’s life, individuals do fall sick and may plan a vacation with their family and friends.
There’s clearly not much that you can do about the excused absences, unexcused absences are more under your control. So, the first thing required is the tracking of Absenteeism.
Control Absenteeism-
It is quintessential for you to prepare your organisation for the unplanned or planned absences of your employees. The little things mentioned below can make a huge difference. Take a look.
- Reinforce- In order to fill the vacant position, you should call part-time employees to get the work done.
- Delegate- Make sure the other employees who are doing the work of absent employees’ have the permissions and access to all the files, folders and information they need.
- Communicate- Tell the employees they may have to work a little more to fill the slack.
- Support- Tell the employee going on leave that he will be contacted when required. If there’s an issue that can be solved by him over call, tell him.
- Record- Keep a record of what is done and what is left, so that when the employee resumes his job, he knows what needs to be done.
Follow the aforementioned points to let the productivity stay unaffected by the absence of the employees. Apart from this, you should also set an attendance policy in place to reduce frequent employee absenteeism. Moreover, if the work environment and policies of your company are good enough, you will get new candidates for the open position if the habit of chronic absenteeism of a few employees isn’t coming under control. Just try to be a better employer so that the employees also try to be a better and loyal employee in return.