Dealing With Absenteeism In The Workplace

How often do you have employees call in sick? If you have issues with absenteeism in the workplace, it may be time to consider looking into the issues at hand and to find a way to get your employee healthier and to prevent them from using their sick leave. When people are constantly calling in sick you have to worry about a loss in productivity as well as issues related to employee morale as many of your employees are going to have to pick up the slack from their co-workers.

What issues are related to absenteeism in your workplace? Some of your employees may fail to show up for work when they are scheduled because they are tired and suffering from burnout. You need to be able to focus on helping your employees address these issues so that you do not have people calling in all the time. Dealing with temporary employees can be a huge headache and your regular employees need to recognize that you will not always "bail them out" with the temporary employees when they fail to show up for work.

So what can you do to deal with absenteeism in the workplace? You need to be able to find out what type of issues are plaguing your staff? Here are some of the things to look for:
1. Employee's attitude. Some people just have an attitude where they do not want to work. They may not have a strong work ethic or they just do not like to work hard. Some people are simply lazy and do not appreciate their jobs. You need to be able to understand your employees attitudes and to make sure that you are looking for ways to encourage them and to understand their personality types to know why they may call in sick or if they are dealing with burn out.
2. Workplace stress. How much work do your employees need to do each day? If they have a lot of work to do, it can cause an increase in stress and it does make it difficult for people to work. You need to look into factors that may be causing stress and forcing people to take time off just to remove some of the stress from their life.
3. Boredom. On the flip side of too much work is not enough work or having the "same old thing" to do each day. You need to look into things such as boredom that may be causing your employees to take time off. When people are not challenged, they can get restless and soon they will become resentful and dissatisfied with their job.

You must keep track of absenteeism and address it with your employees. When they have evaluations and other things, showing them a track record of their absences can help them to see that they do have an issue that needs to be addressed. If you have an employee that is on their last string with the company anyhow, showing them records of their absenteeism can help you to show them a legitimate reason for firing them.

It is important that you keep focused on the personalities of your other employees and to ensure that they are not getting frustrated with the people that are always calling in sick. While it is annoying, you have to watch employee morale and to look for other ways to keep it higher so that the rest of your employees feel appreciated by your company. Focus on creating a comprehensive leave policy to your employees can clearly understand what is expected of them and to know punishment for not abiding by the policy.