Unscheduled Absenteeism in the workplace
“Each occurrence of absence costs the employer an average of $2,500 in both direct and indirect costs. The cost of absenteeism is greater the direct payment of wages and benefits paid durance the absence. Organizations must also consider the indirect costs of staffing, scheduling, re-training, lost productivity, diminished morale, turnover, and opportunity cost.”
*Source-Attendance Management www.benefits.org
Unscheduled absenteeism is a problem that no organization can afford to ignore, yet most companies don’t realize the problem because it’s not something they track.
The cost to American businesses is estimated to be $600 per year-per employee!
“The annual cost can range from $60,000 for small employers to over $1,000,000 for large companies”*
*Source-Commercial Clearing House Absence Survey 2007 www.cch.com.
Two thirds of the employees’ unscheduled absences are for reasons other than personal illness.
- Lower morale leads to higher unscheduled absences i.e. the more unhappy employees are the more reasons they will find not to come to work.
- Some organizations with traditional sick-day policies make it difficult for employees to choose the right thing to do e.g. if all sick days are used up legitimately at the beginning of the year, the person may choose to come to work ill rather than risk disciplined measures.
- Mondays & Fridays show the most notable patterns with days around holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July close behind.
- The STAR employee incentive program is the answer! Attendance records show improvements of from 20% to 75%.
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