The true costs of absenteeism

Does it seem like you have a lot of employees calling in sick all the time? Absenteeism can not only cost your company thousands of dollars it can be very frustrating to deal with for your employees that are left behind to shoulder the burden of work. However there is another thing you have to worry about when it comes to sick leave and this is called presenteeism. This is when you have a sick employee that comes to work despite being ill and tries to work. How much money are they costing your company? Here are a couple figures that will surprise you:

The cost of abeseentism is about $118 billion annually (this is the cost of sick leave, medical expenses, and lost productivity)
The cost of presenteeism is about $180 billion (this is due to reduced productivity of the entire workforce and one sick person can infect an entire workforce)

As you can see the staggering difference in costs, it is definitely a good decision to really push your employees to stay home when they are sick so that they keep the virus out of the office and away from your other employees.

A large number of employees will turn to their sick leave for extra vacation time off, personal reasons, stress, and also related to true illness. It is important that your employees do learn the value of sick leave and to take it when they really are sick. They need to heal their bodies before coming back to work or trying to work when they are sick and end up costing the company millions of dollars.

Many employees do not want to use their sick leave for illnesses because they want to keep it for extra time off so they can call in one day if they do not want to work. This can be quite frustrating to a lot of employers and many of them have started requiring medical notes in order to prove that the individual truly was ill and this is why they were not at the office.

However the employees that may be all out of sick leave and are forced to come in and work or lose out on money can be frustrating as well. Since they aren't going to be as productive and they are likely to send along their germs to everyone else, it will still do you good to send them home and offer an extra day of sick leave. Again, you need to implement harsher restrictions on sick leave to make sure they aren't abusing it so that when an emergency like this does arise that the employees are using the sick leave in the right way.

Help to cut down on the amount of sick leave that is being used by keeping the office clean and sanitary. You need to start using antiseptic wipes on the doorknobs and on places where a lot of hands touch them. Cutting down on germs and the bacteria that is floating around is the best way to prevent disease. You also need to be sure you are getting plenty of healthy airflow in the office. Healthy air flow will be able to provide you with healthier staff members as clean air is less likely to include diseases. Purchase an air purifier if you notice that you have dealt with a lot of sick employees lately.

Encourage your employees to visit the doctor and receive medications if they do have a cold that is very contagious. Getting proper treatment is necessary to reduce the risk of infection spreading to the entire staff and to keep your companies production costs from sky rocketing since you are working with half the staff.