Habitually absent employees are damaging your company’s profit and productivity. In fact, unscheduled absenteeism has been estimated to cost businesses more than £500 per employee per year. But that’s not all.
Although the average UK employee loses just 5.21 working days due to sickness, excessive absences can lead to :
- Decreased productivity
- Strained employee relationships
- Internal company conflict
- Increased administration costs
Most company attendance policies state that employees who abuse workplace leave will face disciplinary action. However, it’s difficult to track your employees’ hours and absences, especially in large companies. With 24 percent of HR professionals citing ‘tracking employee hours’ as their greatest professional challenge, it’s clearly an issue that needs addressing.
In this blog, we’ll discuss four ways absenteeism could be affecting your company’s productivity and the most effective ways to improve your attendance policy.
1. Heightened employee conflict
Workplaces with chronic absenteeism risk becoming breeding grounds for jealousy and resentment. When staff members are left with no choice but to cover for employees with poor attendance, tensions run high and lead to internal conflict.
A 2008 study found that employees spent an average of 2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict. Unfortunately, if this workplace conflict isn’t dealt with, it can become a major cause of poor productivity.
To help counteract internal conflict, it’s important to hold absent employees accountable. Team members look to managers to keep the workplace fair, so be sure to layout the consequences of unnecessary absences.
2. Poor relationships, poor productivity
Studies have found that having a close friend at work is one of the strongest predictors of productivity.
By contrast, employees who are frequently absent struggle to form important working relationships. Unsurprisingly, these poor working relationships have a negative impact on employee productivity.
To keep teams running smoothly, absent employees must realise the extent of their actions – it’s not just the company they are letting down, but their colleagues as well. Encouraging discussion and better communication within teams is a key way to discourage absenteeism.
3. Higher HR labour and costs
Managing absenteeism is a costly process. It can lead to businesses spending thousands on replacement workers, paid overtime and raised administration costs.
Investing in an attendance management system is the ideal way to relieve HR pressure. Instead of wasting time, money and paper on old-fashioned timesheets, a cloud-based system is accessible, efficient and gives you a complete overview of workforce activity.
4. Unmonitored wellbeing
In 2017, the UK lost 12.5 million working days to work-related stress and depression. If you fail to monitor your staff’s attendance, you could be missing signs of poor mental wellbeing.
Absenteeism at work is extremely common in those who suffer from mental health problems. By tracking attendance, you can keep your finger on the pulse of the company and offer support where it’s needed.
Could going digital improve your attendance policy?
Absenteeism costs UK businesses thousands each year in replacement workers, paid overtime and increased administration costs. What’s worse, habitually absent employees can affect your business in many ways, including:
- Draining productivity
- Raking up HR costs
- Raising internal conflict
While every worker has the right to the odd day off, a digital management system allows you to track attendance and stay alert to any emerging patterns. While it can be difficult to identify these trends in traditional timesheets, they are as clear as day in a cloud-based management system. The result is a bird’s eye view of your company – one which helps you to build a workplace that is supportive, productive and champions respect.
To find out more about the power of biometric time and attendance, visit our ACUTEC Attendance page and book a free demo today.
