Employees add value and support the overall growth and development of your organization. When an employee misses work continuously, absenteeism becomes a serious concern for any industry. With ever-changing business conditions, absenteeism is escalating. Because of this, companies and their growth are affected negatively. According to a report by the CDC, worker illness and injury cost US businesses over $225.8 billion annually. It is essential to create a proactive approach and build programs that support your employee base and grow your business.
What is employee absenteeism?
Just like it sounds, employee absenteeism is when an employee is absent from work.
Employees provide several valid reasons for their absence, but they inevitably result in changes to schedules and shifts with the potential for backlogs and decreased output. Therefore, to better support employees, businesses implement paid/personal time off (PTO) programs, leave request protocols, and FMLA. However, it is hard to track requests, and your company must analyze trends and absentee rates.
Your team needs to stay ahead on scheduling and get instant updates related to requests and call-outs. If you want to sustain growth and create an environment that supports employee happiness, you must understand where to bring about meaningful changes. By working with a contact center to support your internal HR functions, these trends and reports become readily available, customizable, and scalable for your team.
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Five tips for overcoming employee absenteeism:
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Flexible schedules and remote work.
Your employees are humans, just like you. Sometimes, they have to go to an appointment or need to provide care to their families. By providing flexible schedules and remote work, you can support your employees while building a beneficial standard for your business. The benefits will include an increase in employee retention and a reduction in overall stress. And, you can see higher productivity and improved output from the employees’ end.
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Reviews and meetings to check-in.
It can be very beneficial (to employee and business) to conduct return-to-work interviews with employees. These interviews provide a space for your HR team to check-in, give support to your employee, and will ensure that your HR team has tracked the correct information regarding the absence. Over time, you’ll see various trends from your interviews and meetings that will help you improve policies and bring awareness to employee absenteeism. Also, this is a great time to enforce any protocols, changes, and requests related to call-outs and absence requests.
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Give rewards, value the power of recognition, and provide balance.
It is a no-brainer; positive motivation and messaging play an essential role in your business’s success. Offering rewards, recognitions, and stability throughout the organization is authoritative. People will want to be at work because it is a positive environment, and this will encourage team members only to take genuine leaves of absence. Therefore, giving more to the company upon their return and driving success from every level.
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PTO policy, if you haven’t already.
When you introduce a PTO reporting policy, you provide a bank of hours in which you pool vacation days, personal days, and sick days that your employee can use as they see fit. Policies like this empower your employees to decide when they need rest so they can fully engage in the office when they’re working.
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Find a partner who can help your teams save time, automate tasks, and provide meaningful reporting.
Tracking employee requests and absences can be a complicated process for your employees and your HR team. AI-Powered Call-Out Lines reduce employee frustrations with call-outs and make it easier for your HR team to focus on your business (instead of manual tracking in spreadsheets). Also, the automated phone lines, easily track and monitor any critical data you want to understand related to employee absenteeism, location/region trends, and more.
Employee absenteeism affects every business. If you implement programs that provide support to your employees, you can navigate absenteeism with a plan that also supports your business. By partnering with an experienced contact center like Call Experts, we help you build scalable, automated systems that provide organizational support and essential insights.
