by Maggie McPhee, PHR, Director of Information Services
Courtesy of: www.teagr.com
Every year when we do our absenteeism and turnover survey I never cease to be amazed at how many companies do not track either statistic. There was a recent article in Workspan magazine (February, 2007) that supports the position for tracking absenteeism, ideally through computer automation.
We all know that getting absenteeism under control is a little like “herding cats.” The article begins by explaining that it is widely known that IF a company can understand the reasons for absences then HR can go on to determine the financial impact of absenteeism, devise ways to increase productivity and boost morale. Nice return for improving one problem!
The authors reference the 2005 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey report stating that one in three employers acknowledge unscheduled absenteeism is a serious problem, and eighty seven percent of those believe the problem has the potential to get worse over time! The survey goes on to report that 35% of unscheduled absences are due to personal illness and 65% are due to other reasons (family issues, personal, entitlement, or stress).
By automating attendance tracking a company can gain the ability to figure out where absenteeism is occurring (what day, what department, etc) as well as potentially figure out the root cause of the problem.
HR’s ability to analyze absence trends and patterns is a known necessity, but in most companies it is found that no one person is accountable for handling this issue (employees call in to various supervisors), so any analysis becomes virtually impossible. But don’t give up hope!
The article explains that establishing a clear, standardized method to capture all the data for attendance (utilizing one call-in line, or having all calls go through HR) is vital in order to accurately analyze any data. Once you establish this, the company can begin to see if there are issues internally (management or between personnel). Noting a pattern that employees are absent on a specific day may cause the company to simply schedule that day off which could lead to enhanced productivity (the employees will feel as if the company is paying attention).
Automating the tracking system allows HR more visibility into the workforce to analyze the causes and motivations behind absences and develop appropriate strategic solutions that will enhance motivation and increase production thereby contributing to the overall success of the business.
As mentioned at the beginning, tracking attendance is never easy, but it is one of those vital pieces of information that has the potential to have a strong impact on the bottom line. For further information about attendance tracking, contact the Information Services department of TEA (www.teagr.com).