Different studies have proved that employee absenteeism can develop a critical impact on the bottom line of the company as a company may not have sufficient manpower when it needs to complete a task. As per a report submitted by the CDC- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cost of employees absenteeism in the United States is USD 1,685 per employee.
The HR managersshould understand that a frequent employee absenteeism situation can severely affect revenue, productivity, and morale. After all, a team will not be able to give its best if some of the team members are absent. Besides, due to the extra work, other employees may feel burdened.
Well, a company using different leave management tools, like a PTO tracker or Employee leave tracker app, can effectively mitigate adverse effects of employee absenteeism. On the other hand, smart leave policies and tools like Day off will control and lower the risks of absenteeism. With this, you can also improve employee welfare and care.
Understanding the effects of absenteeism
In simple words, employee absenteeism is a lack of attendance at the workplace without a valid cause. It may not cover no-show, no-call, and situations that are uncontrollable. In general, employee absenteeism in the company can affect employees as well as employers. Let’s have a look at those points.
For employers:
- Lowered productivity levels under a specific time period.
- An increased administration cost as well as manufacturing cost.
- Increased labor costs if the HR managers hire a temporary replacement worker to complete the job.
- Lack of workforce can lead to poor quality customer service.
- There can be a poor level of morale among colleagues. This can be prevalent if the employees have to fill in for the absent employees and if there are no retributions for the absence.
- Other employees will feel stressed at work.
For employees
- Employees will suffer from the loss of pay for their leave or time off.
- There will be reduced productivity when they return to their work as they need to catch up with the process.
- The employee absenteeism is unexplained and quite frequent, then the employees may face dismissal.
So, it can be said that employee absenteeism can be quite costly for all of the workforce. For HR management, it is important to understand the cause and then develop a strategy including deployment of a free vacation tracker to lower it to enjoy the benefits.
Some effective ways to lower employee absenteeism in the workplace
Make a clear and easy-to-understand attendance policy
Your company’s attendance policy should properly explain how to report leaves, absences and the procedures to record the absences. Besides, you should include information about the consequences that one can face due to repeated absences. The repercussions should be mentioned clearly in the policy.
Once created, you need to send the policy to staff, and don’t forget to discuss it with them to know whether they are happy with it. You can use a professional Employee time off tracker to send the policy to all. The leave policy will function as an important resource to your employees. However, always remember to follow the policy no matter what the situation is.
You should offer paid time off and vacation days
Well, the time has changed, and most of the employees don’t want to follow the traditional 9 to 5 routine. Besides, utilizing modern technology, they can work whenever and wherever they want. If you are hiring the best talents who can give their 100 percent to attain the results, then you need to trust them and allow them the facility to manger their timetable.
One of the major reasons behind employee absenteeism is burnout. And to prevent that, you should offer vacation days and paid-off leaves. Well, don’t worry if you are thinking it will be challenging to manage the leaves and attendance record. You can use PTO tracking software for that.
Use a good leave management system
When it comes to frequent employees absenteeism, the reason can be related to different factors. For example, their personal life, some official issue, poor working environment, health issue, and more. All the HR managers should develop a positive environment for the employees. And this is where they can use a well-designed employee leave management system, such as the Day off app, a free time off tracker.
Using such a system, you can easily track the leaves that your employees take every year. Besides, it will allow the company to distribute the work of the employees who are taking leaves to complete the work on time. Tools like Leave tracker can help to prevent accidental leave requests. And the HR management department can have better control over the leave requests.
Enhance the employee and workplace well-being
Do you know who the happy employees are? Well, they are the employees who are excited to come to the office regularly. An organization offering both mental and physical support can enjoy a productive workforce. When there is perfect well-being, there will be fewer sick days. Create different employee wellness programs and make sure that the employees are participating. This will develop a better communication facility, and you will be able to meet the requirements.
Reward the good attendance
Make sure that you are not penalizing the employees who have taken protected leave. Instead of that, prefer to reward them, and that will encourage a good attendance mindset among the employees. Besides, it will be a good motivator. Well, you don’t have to do anything special about this. Sometimes, simple positive feedback, as well as encouragement, can work great. Sometimes, employees may need help to get back to work. You should consider this and can include light-duty options.