With absenteeism costing businesses such as the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) an estimated £2.4bn per year; absence prevention methods are topping the to-do list of management and HR professionals nationwide as the New Year begins to unfold.
Adjacent to loss in revenue, workplace absences cost UK businesses in loss of productivity, morale and overtime replacing lost working hours: which can cause detrimental effects on small businesses.
Workplace Absenteeism: Causes
Though employers anticipate a certain number of missed workdays throughout the year, there’s a strong need to reduce and eliminate the quantity of illegitimate or preventable employee absences.
Workplace absence can be caused by a number of factors. While stress and anxiety is believed to affect an estimated one-in-six workers in the UK, (FitforWork.org) absenteeism is also caused by the following:
- Bullying and Harassment
- Childcare issues
- Eldercare issues
- Depression
- Disengagement
- Illness
- Injury
The question is; what effective channels can employers take to minimise workplace absences in their establishments?
Health Incentives
With stress being the leading cause of workplace absenteeism (Health-matters.co.uk) more and more employers are offering various health incentives to prevent sickness related absences in their establishments.
One of the most desired health incentive body’s is the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which offers services such as; counselling, money advice, debt management, child and eldercare information, workplace support and management support: to name few.
Statistics suggest that by incorporating sanctions to improve employee health and well-being, you could see staff absence rates in your workplace decrease dramatically.
Fair Working Hours
A study conducted by the NHS in 2015 shows “People working long hours are more likely to have a stroke” while ‘employment-studies.org’ released a report detailing how working fewer hours greatly spurs productivity.
With these statistics, it’s clear that increasing employees working hours doesn’t actually result in higher productivity rates; it’s in fact, quite the opposite.
By minimising working hours, establishments can expect to see an improvement in both the quality and quantity of work produced adjacent to lower health risks resulting in lower absenteeism among the force.
Time and Attendance Solutions
Collating time and attendance data is a tool many businesses use to accurately monitor staff attendance.
Among many features, time and attendance systems are heavily relied upon in managing employee absence leave while effectively calculating payroll.
Investing in time and attendance systems could see employee absence levels decrease effectively while offering coherent data which highlights overall workplace absence statistics along with individual employee statistics.
Premier Workforce Management
Decreasing absenteeism in the workplace heavily relies on the skills and sanctions managerial bodies enforce in the workplace.
Devising a strategy which is tailored to your workforce’s absence reasons and following through with positive preventative measures will see absence levels decrease while increasing productivity and overall morale across the UK business industry.
Now is the time to strategically look at ways you can improve your workforce and make 2016 a year pivotal to the growth of your business.
Good luck!
