Why are employees absent from work?

Each year, CCH asks HR professionals to share information about absenteeism at their organizations. Key findings from the 2006 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey include:

• The rate of unscheduled absenteeism is 2.5 percent, the highest since 1999 when it was 2.7%.
• Unscheduled absences are costly. Large organizations stand to lose as much as $850,000 per year.
• Only 35 percent of unscheduled absences are due to Personal Illness.

Where are they if they're not at work? Personal Illness accounts for only 35 percent of last-minute no-shows. Family Issues (24 percent), Personal Needs (18 percent), Stress (12 percent); and Entitlement Mentality (11 percent) account for the remainder of unscheduled absences.

Combating absenteeism. Disciplinary Action remains the single-most common absence control program used by 97 percent of organizations, followed by Yearly Review (82 percent), Verification of Illness (79 percent) and Paid Leave Banks/Paid Time Off (70 percent). Paid Leave Banks are considered the most effective absence control programs, with an effectiveness rating of 3.7.

Work-life programs. Faced with the dilemma of how to address the non-health-related reasons for absenteeism that are keeping workers away from the workplace, employers are increasingly introducing work-life programs, with 11 options offered in 2006, up from nine in 2005. The five most used work-life programs are: Employee Assistance Plans, Wellness Programs, Leave for School Functions, Flu Shot Programs, and Alternative Work Arrangements. The work-life programs deemed most effective at curbing absenteeism are: Alternative Work Arrangements, Leave for School Functions, Telecommuting, Compressed Work Week, and Emergency Childcare.

Work-life programs can inject enough flexibility to address the real reasons employees don't show up for work. So, for example, if time off is flexible enough to allow employees to miss work for personal business, then those days or hours off can be scheduled in advance. With advance notice, work duties can be shuffled in such a way so as to cover the employee's duties while he or she is away on time off. Using a flexible time off policy, then, has clear advantages for both the employee and employer.