What Are the Common Causes of Employee Absenteeism?

Employees are absent from work without the approval of the company or department.

Employee absenteeism

There are various reasons for absenteeism. Obviously, some absenteeism is unavoidable. People do get sick, and certain family matters, such as sick children, undoubtedly take time. In these cases, it is impossible for companies to require employees to work. This type of absenteeism is often referred to as unintentional absenteeism.

On the other hand, many absenteeisms are often avoidable. This avoidable absenteeism is called intentional absenteeism. Sometimes excessive total absenteeism in companies is largely caused by a small number of employees.

To control or reduce absenteeism, enterprises should start by continuously checking the absenteeism statistics of various departments. Such inspections allow managers to accurately determine which employees are frequently absent and which departments are absent from work.

There are several ways to calculate absenteeism. The following is a formula for calculating the absenteeism rate recommended by The US Labor Department: (worker daily loss / average number of employees x number of working days due to absenteeism during a period of time) x 100%.

Note: You can also use hours instead of working days to calculate.

If managers have a clearer understanding of the reasons for intentional absenteeism, then it becomes easier to control them. There are many ways to reduce intentional absenteeism. Enterprises should clearly indicate the policies and measures to treat absenteeism in the employee handbook, and leaders and managers at all levels should also remind employees to pay attention to relevant regulations. Clear absenteeism policies and regulations can help improve control.

Means of controlling absenteeism can be divided into three categories:

1 Employee absenteeism 1. Disciplinary action

Many employers discipline disciplinary workers. The first intentional absenteeism will receive a verbal warning, and subsequent intentional absenteeism will be punished by written warnings, temporary suspension and final dismissal.

2 Absenteeism 2. Positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement measures include cash, commendation, vacation or other rewards for employees who meet the standard of attendance. Some commendations for good attendance, certain rewards for employees who are absent for less than a certain number of days, and "buying back" unused sick leave are all positive reinforcement measures to reduce absenteeism.

3 Absenteeism 3. Comprehensive Approach

The comprehensive method is to reward good performance on the one hand and punish bad performance on the other. It is an ideal method. Some companies have designed or adopted a sick leave library method, which is quite effective. The practice is that the company sets up a sickness database for each employee with a pay limit but a limited number of days. When inventory becomes empty, unless the employee has a serious illness that is covered by long-term disability insurance, he will lose part of his salary due to continued absence.

Another approach is called the "no-fault" absenteeism policy. Under this policy, the cause of absence is irrelevant, but employees must manage their total absence time. Managers will no longer determine which absences are excusable and which are unforgivable. As long as absenteeism exceeds formal limits, various disciplinary measures, including termination of employment, will take effect.

Some companies have further improved relevant policies and measures. They provide employees with a Paid Time-off scheme, under which each employee's vacation, holidays and sick leave are combined into a paid leave account. Employees are free to use the days in their account for sick leave, personal matters, and vacations. If employees run out of days in their account, their additional absences will no longer be remunerated. Paid leave programs generally reduce the number of absenteeism, especially the number of absenteeism. However, because employees generally use the unused days in their accounts as vacations, the number of days of leaving the company tends to increase.