HR Analytics for Reducing Absenteeism at Work

Workplace absenteeism can be throw a major wrench into efficiency and productivity in any company.

You can always expect some absenteeism – after all, people do get sick! However, many companies have a certain amount of preventable absenteeism, and when it reaches disruptive levels, it can have a poor impact.

HR Analytics is in a position to help take action to reduce preventable absenteeism. With access to critical data, astute analysis can help companies to build a picture of what is happening and any factors that influence absenteeism.

Here, we’re looking at what HR can do about absenteeism:

The business case for reducing absenteeism

With HR analytics still being a relatively new concept for most companies, it’s always important to  reinforce the business case for what we do. Our opportunity is to make a real difference by providing actionable information that helps to solve pressing problems.

When we look at absenteeism, there is a clear business case. To begin with, expenditure due to absenteeism can be very high, especially within countries where there are high levels of employee protections and social security. Take the Netherlands as an example: when an employee has a long-term physical or psychological disability, the company is obliged to pay the employee’s salary for up to 12 months.

Even short-term absences take their toll. If you have an employee who regularly calls in sick on a Monday, you might see reduced productivity or even morale issues when others have to pick up the workload. For some companies, absences will impact their ability to serve their customers, or even to perform tasks safely. For example, consider a hospital or medical practice that consistently has shortages of critical staff due to absenteeism. 

There may also be slightly less tangible effects, such as lack of cohesiveness among teams at work. Companies may find that employee knowledge isn’t where it should be or that key things get missed.

Intentional or habitual absences are often covered by provisions in your employee contracts, but the reasons behind those absences lie at the feet of the company. In most cases, where there is an issue going on at work, the absences would be preventable if the right actions were taken. For example, what if absenteeism were due to any of these factors?

• Bullying or harassment at work
• Burnout
• Stress or low morale
• Job hunting
• Disengagement
• Workplace injuries

There are also causes that may or may not be directly related to the workplace itself, such as:

• Depression and anxiety
• Illness
• Child or eldercare issues
• Injuries outside of work
• Other issues within the home (for example, an ill spouse).

Data for absenteeism analysis

One of the first things companies need to be doing is gathering data on absenteeism. Many are largely unaware of the financial effect that absenteeism is having on their business because they aren’t collecting the data. You need the incidences of absenteeism, their cause and the cost.

Of course, this isn’t an easy ask. Tracking the incidents is a good place to start, preferably via a centralised system so that data can be found in one place. This data can be integrated with other critical employee information, such as work history, productivity and performance review results.

Cause can be a more difficult piece to capture, unless people are willing to directly tell you. A pattern of absences can be due to things that are preventable at work. For example, it can suggest poor relationships with managers, poor working conditions or both. The person who wasn’t trained properly on a task and gets blasted by their manager every time they get it wrong may be driven to seek respite through absences.

One thing you could track absences against is the results of any surveys you do among employees about the workplace. There may be patterns in relation to the responses you get and the overall impression of morale in the workplace. In anonymous surveys, you can also insert questions that directly ask about absences, for example you might ask:

• How many unplanned absences did you take last quarter?
• Why did you take the unplanned absence? (Multiple choice, or free-form answers)

Importantly, the employee must be assured that the survey is and will remain anonymous if you’re to get the most honest answers. Always allowing room for them to provide their own answer will mean that you can start to build a picture of any preventable issues. 

With data gathered, you can build a picture of the total number of absentee days against the reasons given for absence. For example, see the Pareto chart from Inside HR below:

As for costs, there are a few pieces of data you might track:

• The direct cost to the company of paid days off
• Any difference in output (for example, sales)
• The cost of temporary or casual staff 
• The cost of training other staff.

Taking action to reduce absenteeism

When you can identify the common reasons for absenteeism, you can present a case to take action to reduce it. Chances are, you will find issues that your workplace can do something about in relation to absenteeism.

Here are some common examples that HR analysts have found:

• A particular manager takes a draconian approach to any sick leave, meaning that people on their team come into work while sick. Others on the team get sick too, because they catch what that employee brought into work.
  
• Digging deeper than that – why was the manager taking such a strict approach to sick leave? It turns out that part of their bonus compensation was based upon managing leave among staff. This means a logical action may be to remove the leave component from the bonus structure.
  
• Absences were common among teams that had been downsized or restructured, with subsequent re-shuffling of work. People were feeling overworked, stressed and burnt out. There is clear action for the company to take in ensuring workloads are fair, the employees are trained to cope with them and that employees get their required breaks.
  
• Incidents of depression lead to absenteeism. While clinical depression is more commonly diagnosed and managed now, we can also track against the seasons. Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD) is a documented result of long periods of gloom in the winter. It can also affect office workers who see little natural light during their work day. In the UK, studies found one in five employees call in sick due to low enthusiasm as a result of winter. Workplaces might put supports in place to help manage or get help for depression among employees.
  
• Illness and injury leading to absence. You can’t prevent all illness or injury, but you can have programs in the workplace to promote health. For example, strict adherence to health and safety policies, as well as initiatives for health and wellness.
  
• Disengagement. This can be for a number of reasons, from not getting along with a manager to feeling under-valued. Getting to the root cause will help HR departments recommend solutions that improve absenteeism.

Final thoughts

Absenteeism represents a huge cost to many workplaces. Often, the best place to start is by gathering that data. Many businesses are completely unaware of how they are impacted by absenteeism or what it is costing them because they don’t have a central point to gather the data.

HR Analytics is in a unique position to gather, analyse and interpret key data on absenteeism, its causes, and potential solutions. 

One of the keys to success, as with any sort of employee data-gathering, will lie in gaining the trust of employees. They must know that they can give honest answers anonymously and not face repercussions for doing so.