How can sickness and absence risk impact your company?

A couple of sick days every year for one worker does not sound like a big deal. However, when added together, they have a considerable effect on your business and the economy as a whole.

We have researched and gathered data from several recent studies about staff sickness and absence to help you better understand its impact on your organization.

Sickness & absence risk overview

Absence risk and sickness take place in your organization when there is a lot of employee absenteeism without good reason. Even though there’s no issue with people falling sick and using their time off to get better, extended and continuous exploitation of your sick days could be a sign of an underlying issue.

Furthermore, your firm could have high absenteeism when workers take more days off than is allowed or if one worker takes too many days off than the others.

Every time one or more employees are not at work, some projects and objectives are being delayed. For this reason, absence in the workplace must be dealt with instantly; otherwise, it will develop a negative office habit and, as a result, craft costly issues for your company.

How absence risk and sickness impact your company

Continuous absenteeism in high numbers reduces the productivity of your firm because of the many unavailable employees. This means you’ll have fewer employees and more projects, which will lead to unfinished work or finished work within a significantly longer timeframe. For instance, a study done by CIPD revealed that the average cost of one employee’s absence was £554 annually in the UK.

This leaves the present workforce overworked and strained because they have to do more work to beat the deadlines and achieve their goals. For instance, the Society for Human Resource Management published a report that revealed employees are usually 29% less productive when they’re backing up their fellow absent workers. It makes perfect sense as they need to adapt to the present workload and timeframe to achieve the given objectives. At times, they even have to work overtime to reach the deadlines.

Furthermore, as an employer, sometimes you’re pushed to take on and pay temporary employees to ensure the work is done on time. The time you will spend training these temporary staff could have been better used to deal with other equally or more pressing matters.

Another report released by the Society for Human Resource Management revealed that employers spend 5.3 weeks or 4.2 hours annually handling employee absences by finding temporary replacements and training them.

Besides, these employees who use their sick days for no valid reason usually have below-average performance at work. Lastly, workers who take leave for no reason rarely submit their work on time and are always late for training and meetings. Consequently, this translates to low-quality work. Again, it may lead to sub-par performance whenever they’re at work.

Customer dissatisfaction

With the poor work quality, absence risk and sickness could result in submitting projects late. The non-attendance of workers in critical roles can also impact the work quality offered to the clients.

So, how do you properly handle sickness and absence risk? The first step is to figure out what causes it, then deal with it accordingly. Identifying the reasons behind it will come in handy in making the much-needed improvements in your firm.

Handling absence risk and sickness?

The reasons why employees take numerous and unpermitted absences are countless. For instance, some workers will take leave due to a lack of enthusiasm and motivation to do their work. Additionally, some leave because they feel uncomfortable in the office; maybe they’re being harassed by their superiors or colleagues.

Also, fatigue could be the reason why your employees are taking unauthorized leave. They might simply need some time to recharge then come back. And obviously, they may be sick or injured, or they might have home emergencies like taking care of their kids.

In any case, it is essential to listen to your workers, especially their concerns. This is the only way you can make suitable corrections, as an employer, to encourage them to get back in the office once you understand their position.

Fortunately, the market is flooded with tools that can allow for constant listening of your employees` issues, offering your company relevant information to handle absence risk and sickness efficiently.

So how will these tools assist your company?

These are software developed based on science; thus, they rate how satisfied or not your workers could be, as well as their general welfare. Also, they offer insights and information that’s accurate, making it easy for you to pinpoint where each worker, group of workers, or department stands when it comes to absence and sickness risk.

Besides, these tools are equipped with features that allow you to distinguish absence and sickness risk. This gives you the chance to get ahead of the problem before it becomes a huge issue for your company. Companies can also use absence management software like Timetastic to track all planned and unplanned absences of teams.

Again, since you need accurate and relevant data about your employees, most of these tools use these three approaches;

• Goal attainment
• Social interrelation
• Emotional & physical security

Lastly, you’ll be glad to know that you can use these tools anonymously. This entices your workers, to tell the truth about how they feel about being at work and why they are on leave regularly.

Therefore, if absence and sickness risk has been an issue in your company, it’s time you rely on one or more of these tools to get your company back on track. By spotting the problems and addressing them, you can finally go about your business without the risk that comes with frequent absenteeism.

Summary

With over £20 billion lost to sickness annually, there is a lot that needs to be done to lessen absenteeism in your company. The effects of sick leave on companies are plenty, including customer dissatisfaction and motivational and financial issues.

What’s more, your company’s health provider can assist you in coming up with acceptable policies to aid your firm in lessening the chances of sickness absence, unearthing underlying problems, and getting your employees back to the office with no issues.