No matter how you slice or dice the data, absenteeism and presenteeism continue to be major drains on the nation’s employers. Here are just a few of the ways researchers are counting the costs:
- U.S. workers miss more than half a billion work days every year, according to the Employer Assistance and Resource Network.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that absenteeism costs a total of $225.8 billion annually in lost productivity in the U.S. alone.
- The American Productivity Audit estimates that presenteeism costs the U.S. economy $150 billion every year.
- Workforce solutions provider Circadian estimates that unscheduled absenteeism costs roughly $3,600 per year for each hourly worker and $2,650 per year for each salaried employee.
There are a number of reasons employees go absent or tune out while on the job. Some of those reasons, such as illness and attending to caregiving responsibilities, are valid and can’t always be avoided. Other reasons are far more troubling to employers—burnout, disengagement, and poor morale, among them.
Solving Your Company’s Problems
To solve your organization’s specific absenteeism and presenteeism issues, you need to understand what’s driving them. For the best possible insights, you should begin an honest, ongoing dialogue with your employees. Performance reviews, employee surveys, and exit interviews are just some of the channels you can use to sustain this dialogue and gather insights. However you go about it, employees must feel they can communicate safely and without fear of reprisal. If they don’t, you might never learn what’s truly driving their absenteeism and disengagement.
Solving your specific absenteeism/presenteeism issues may require a mix of strategies and tactics including carefully measuring and tracking absences, implementing absenteeism management policies, restructuring PTO policies, conducting employee engagement and satisfaction surveys, and revitalizing your health and wellness initiatives.
Generally speaking, flexible work schedules and remote work opportunities can go a long way toward helping to reduce absenteeism. A few years ago, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that a third of the companies it surveyed experienced a drop in absenteeism after launching flex-time policies.
Another solution that can help address many of the causes of absenteeism and presenteeism is integrating a variety of support programs into your employee benefits package.
Get Your People Back on Track with These Powerful Programs
There are a growing array of support programs that will keep your employees from going absent and checking out while on the job. The following four represent a great starting point for any company:
- Work-Life Programs—A high-quality work-life program saves your employees time, money, and stress on the full range of work-life needs including child and elder care challenges, financial and legal matters, health and wellness issues, and more. In 2018, 72% of people who used LifeCare’s work-life services said those services increased their overall productivity … 80% reported an increase in loyalty to their employers … And 82% said their stress levels were lower as a result.
- Backup Care Programs—It’s inevitable that your employees’ child and elder care arrangements will break down. Without a backup care program in place, employees will likely have to scramble to find alternate arrangements, with varying degrees of success. Many will even elect to miss work. With a flexible backup care program at their disposal, however, your company’s caregivers will easily find reliable, affordable care and they won’t have to miss work or be distracted while on the job.
- Senior Care Management Programs—Without the right support, caring for older loved ones can be difficult. But a trustworthy senior care management program can save your employees valuable amounts of time, energy and stress—and helps them remain focused at work. LifeCare’s comprehensive senior care management program, for example, provides a spectrum of invaluable services such as in-person assessments at the elder’s home, detailed care recommendations, 24/7 telephonic and online services for your employees; and more.
- Homework Assistance Programs—When your company’s parents struggle to help their children with homework and school assignments, it can be a major source of worry and distraction. Programs like LifeCare’s Homework Connection provide 24/7 access to tutors, on-demand study guides, educational resources, and interactive learning tools. There’s even an option for tutoring for college level students.
These are just four of the programs you can implement to slash your organization’s absenteeism and presenteeism costs. Plus, they’ll make your benefits package a major draw in winning and retaining talent.
If you’d like to learn more about implementing a results-driven, combined work-life/EAP program, contact us here or call us at (866) 675-3751.