The Recession and Employee Absence

Posted by admin on January 13th, 2010 and filed under Recruitment |

YOU NEED A STRONG BUSINESS CASE TO TURN WELLNESS INTO A STRATEGY RATHER THAN A LUXURY

We are aware from previous research that two thirds of US workers who call in sick at the last minute do so for reasons other than physical illness, but rather for reasons more personal. This trend may differ per country, but we see similarities in patterns of unscheduled leave.

Trends in absence within organizations in South Africa are difficult to explore accurately, as very little information is systematically collected and recorded. Organizations where the real-time absence management programmes are able to provide detailed statistics which are valuable for planning and action.

The 17^th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey found that personal illness accounts for 34% of unscheduled absence, but 66% of absence are due to other reasons, including family issues (22%), personal needs (11%), stress/burnout (13%) and some union’s personal favorite, entitlement mentality (13%).

CIPD’s tenth national survey of absence management policy and practice, based on replies from 642 employers in organizations employing a total of more than 1.9 million employees, found that almost four in ten employers say the recession had increased their organization’s focus on reducing absence levels and costs. There are some interesting findings on absence levels including employers’ attitude to health and wellbeing in the current climate:

The average absence rate is down to 7.4 days from 8.0 days last year. However, the gap between private and public sector absence is getting bigger at 3.3 days per employee;
In the UK, the survey stated that by reducing public sector absence to the same levels as the private sector, it would save the taxpayers $700m;
A positive net balance of 5% of employers think employee concern over job security has had the effect of decreasing the overall level of absence (16%) compared to those who believe it has had the opposite effect (11%);and
Just over 40% of respondent organizations use employee absence records as part of the criterion when selecting for redundancy.

The survey asked whether respondents had noticed an increase in people coming to work ill in last 12 months. Just over a fifth of employers (21%) said yes; however 67 % said there had been no change in this respect. One of five respondents said there had been an increase in reported mental health problems.

Other key findings were:

Only a third of employers have a health and wellbeing strategy;
20% of respondents stated their investment in health and wellbeing will increase in 2010 as opposed to 39% last year;
Only 41% of employers monitor the cost of absence;
35% of private sector employers set an absence target. At the same time,64% of public sector employers set a target; and
38% of private sector employers benchmark their absence figures.

The picture the CIPD survey depicts is that, in the recession, many health and wellbeing initiatives conceived during more prosperous times do not have the strength of business case required to sustain them in an economic downturn.

On a lighter note, we close off 2009 with some of the most unusual reasons employees offered for arriving late to work employees.

I dreamt that I was fired, so I didn’t bother to get out of bed;
I had to take my cat to the dentist;
I went all the way to the office and realized I was still in my pyjamas and had to go home to change;
I saw that you weren’t in the office, so I went out looking for you; and
I couldn’t find the right tie, so I had to wait for the stores to open so I could buy one

Some of the most unusual reasons employees reported absent from work: