This paper discusses major reasons that workers are absent. It looks at absenteeism trends that have emerged in recent years and examines ways that an employer can combat this phenomenon. The paper also discusses several predictors of absenteeism including age, education, and health.
Problem Statement.
There are various reasons why there is employee absenteeism. I plan to look at the causes and suggest what can be done to reduce it. According to Benefits.org, absenteeism is a failure of employees reporting for work when they are scheduled to work. .
Bonacu (2005) points out in the CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey employee absenteeism costs organizations an average of $660 per employee in 2005. There is a gamut of causes of absenteeism from the lack of job satisfaction, personal problems at home, transportation problems, to boredom on the job. Absenteeism also causes a decrease in productivity which in the long run affects staff morale.
Employee absences consist of scheduled and unscheduled time off, and both have correlating direct and indirect costs. Without insight into the specific reasons for absence, organizations may be surprised to learn that many unscheduled employee absences have nothing to do with illness. There may be other reasons such as, the inability to find adequate day care, safety concerns for night shift employees or a lack of recognition that creates low motivation. Once I research the causes, costs and trends I should gain a better understanding of why this is occurring.
Literature Review.
Absenteeism causes increased stress on the remaining workers and a reduction in productivity. In addition, employee absenteeism impacts the cost of doing business which causes serious economic problems.
The cost of employee absenteeism is enormous. It is estimated that absenteeism consumes an average of more than 15 percent of companies' payrolls. When the factors of costs of paying absent workers, benefits payout, insurance premiums, and salary continuation the total cost becomes humongous.