Main reasons for employee absenteeism and how to manage the absenteeism?
What
is absenteeism?
Bourea and Cascio (2005) explain the absenteeism as failure to report or remain at work as scheduled. The word scheduled exclude all types of authorized and unauthorized absents. Absenteeism can simply explain as the unavailability of the employee to his/ her appointed job.
Factors affecting to absenteeism
Personal factors and Organizational factors are the main two factors.
Personnel factors
· Personal illness - Josias (2005) and Garman and Kim (2003) found personal illness become the most common reason for absenteeism.
· Family Issues / Personnel needs.
· Personality Characteristics - The employees who has extreme level of emotional, Instability, anxiety, aggression, independence and self confidence are more prone to be absent than moderate personal characteristics employees (Josias ,2005)
Organizational Factors
· Supervision – Structure of supervision and leadership style of the supervisors
· Organizational Leave Policy - Organization absenteeism policy shouldn’t reward wrong employees by accepting their frequent absents and it is negatively influenced for employees who are rarely get absent.
· Work group norms/Organizational culture.
How to manage absenteeism?
· Absenteeism need to be linked with
performance management to discourage the high absenteeism.
· Need to conduct “return interviews”, once
an employee attends to job after leave. Records need to maintain of high
absenteeism employees. Strategies need to be executed to withdraw the behavior
of absenteeism.
· Organizational culture needs to change
from culture absent to culture of attendance by mind setting of employees.
· Ensuring the health & safety of working
environment and Health & safety policies need to be revised if needed.
· Conduct training and development sessions for
supervisors/Managers aiming to built sound and harmonious relationship with
their subordinators.
· Modernize the current company leave policy
where the current policy is only limited to the rules and regulations of wages
board and shop & office employees’ acts in Sri Lanka. Organization leave
policy required to be a source for encouraging high attendance and discouraging
high absenteeism.
· Conducting employee education programs
which focus to reduce the Work to Family Conflicts and to uplift the quality of
work life.
REFERENCES
Bourea, J., Cascio, W.
(2005). Investing In people: Financial
impact of Human Resources Initiatives. New Jersey: Person Education, Inc.
Garmen, E., T., Kim, J.
(2003). Financial Absenteeism: An Empirically Derived Research Model. (Doctoral
dissertation, University of Maryland).
Josias, B., A. (2005).
The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction & Absenteeism. (Thesis &
dissertation, University of Waston Cape).
Workplace harassment, family-related concerns, illness, and job hunting are all common reasons for absenteeism. Employers may incur higher expenditures as a result of absenteeism. You have clearly explained the impact and how to manage Absenteeism in your article. Good Luck
ReplyDeleteAs discussed, employee absenteeism can have a major impact on the performance of the organisation. HR managers play an important role in identifying the reasons for absenteeism and hep the employee in solving these issues. They also should keep employees motivated and engaged which will reduce absenteeism. Good article Amila.
ReplyDeleteAbsenteeism is taken lightly but actually has a huge cost and impact on the organization and its performance, Good article
ReplyDeleteAs you have clearly explained, absenteeism has a direct impact to the performance of the Organization. There may be lot of reasons for absenteeism which HR professionals should identify the reasons. Providing necessary solutions for the reasons of absenteeism will help to improve the output of the workforce ensuring the better performance of the Organization.
ReplyDeleteGood job Amila ..
Absenteeism is defined as an employee's regular absence from work, which is frequently unintentional and for no valid cause. Workplace harassment, family-related concerns, illness, and job hunting are all common reasons for absenteeism. Employers may incur higher expenditures as a result of absenteeism. Great job Amila.
ReplyDeleteAbsenteeism leads to increase HR related cost and you have nicely described its impact. Great article.
ReplyDeleteAbsenteeism is mostly related to the organizations operated with large workforce and this is having direct impact on optimum utilization of factories. You have clearly explained reasons and way to handle absenteeism.
ReplyDelete