September Y2K
Reducing Absenteeism
Having a tough time getting your employees to show up for work? You’re not alone, according to Kristin Accipiter, representative for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Alexandria, VA.
“It’s one of the top issues that employees are struggling with—especially in light of the tight labor market.”
But your workers are struggling, too. That’s possibly why they’re not there. They’re trying to balance the ever-increasing demands of work and personal life, and it’s tough.
“More workers than ever before stayed home to combat stress or simply because they felt entitled to a day off,” reported CCH Inc. of Riverwoods, IL, a human resources information and software provider, in its annual absenteeism survey. How can you cut down on unscheduled absences since it disrupts your work flow? Here are some suggestions from human resource experts:
Pool your paid-time-off benefits. “Stop treating paid sick leave, vacation time, personal days and holidays as separate benefits,” advised Rosemary M. Martin, a Medford, NJ, HR consultant doing business as Human Resources Management. “Pool them and let workers decide how to use them. Most workers will learn to treasure those days because once they’re depleted, that’s it for the benefit year,” said Martin.
According to Accipiter, employees are less likely to be absent when they know that time will be deducted from their paychecks and that they aren’t likely to squander an entire day off if they only need, say, two hours for a doctor’s appointment.
Accipiter said that employees might return to work afterwards. Paid time off gives employees flexibility and control and diminishes the conflict between work and life obligations. No one has to lie about the reason for absence.
Create an enticing work environment. “Make it a place where workers will want to come,” said Martin. How? “By analyzing the quality of the work experience you’ve created,” said Tom Casey, principal in charge of attraction and retention at PriceWaterhouseCoopers Unifi Network unit in Chicago. He said that employers should convene a focus group and ask workers how they view the learning opportunities, compensation, career potential, management, benefits and physical workspace. If they’re content with those, they’ll be committed and won’t miss work.
“If there are extremes in one of those areas, or weaknesses in all, you better do a fix,” said Casey. “Otherwise, employees won’t feel motivated to show up regularly and may even quit, leaving you facing replacement costs.”
Tell employees the significance of their absence. According to Lalita Amos, an Indianapolis human resources management consultant for Total Team Solutions LLC, employees often think they’re working in a vacuum.
“They don’t understand that when they’re gone, there’s this domino effect,” she said. “Others have to pick up the slack. So, gather your employees and tell them the importance of their contribution and what their absenteeism means to other employees,” she said. “I think employees really do care about how they’re perceived in the workplace.
Lighten up if they’re accomplishing the job. Employers should make clear “the difference between being present at a job and accomplishing the required results of that job,” said Erik Van Slyke, senior manager of human capital for Deloitte & Touche LLP in New York City. Slyke said that no one cares about whether he’s really on time, let alone being there, as long as he gets things accomplished without disrupting the way others accomplish theirs.”
He said that not all positions require a 100 percent presence and advised against managing the means and instead manage the results.
“If they know what they have to accomplish and when they have to accomplish it, just leave them alone to do it however they want to do it. Treat them as adults,” Slyke said.
More tips for reducing absenteeism. Here are some from www.hr-esource.com: Pay for unused sick leaves at year’s end; let workers carry over sick leaves; award $50 per calendar quarter for perfect attendance, $25 for perfect monthly attendance.
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