Absenteeism at Work: Understand the Reasons and Learn How to Calculate the Fee in Your Company!

 

Absenteeism at Work: Understand the Reasons and Learn How to Calculate the Fee in Your Company!

Absenteeism, also known as unjustified absence of employees, is the act of abstaining from the work environment or from a certain function. It can negatively affect your finances and indicate that something is not going well with the company.

Absenteeism in companies is not a problem today, but it has been getting worse over the years.

The pressure to achieve goals, stress levels, dissatisfaction with work, among other factors, lead professionals to leave their jobs and generate a series of problems for companies.

In the work environment, tardiness, early departures, absences and partial or total absences during a period are classified as absenteeism. When attitudes like these start to become frequent, it's time to stay alert. This can indicate problems related to the team, management or the company as a whole.

In addition to harming their professional performance, absenteeism at work has consequences for the entire team, since the productivity of employees depends on everyone.

Let's think about it: when one employee is absent, his/her work needs to be done by someone else on the team to avoid delays.

In this way, it is likely that a person will be overwhelmed when performing their tasks and those of the missing person. Overworked professionals, however, become less productive and, in the end, quite dissatisfied with their routine.

This has consequences for everyone, as it undermines the organizational climate.

In addition, low levels of productivity affect the quality of services provided by the company, directly impacting customer experience and satisfaction.

Why track absenteeism rates?

Delays and absences can be motivated by a variety of reasons, whether they are justified or not.

However, high absenteeism rates show possible motivation problems, exhaustion, behavioral deviations, internal problems, etc. In addition to indicating points for improvement in the company, monitoring this rate is essential because it generates financial losses. That's why we need to fight this kind of behavior.

However, before we show you how to calculate the absenteeism rate, we need to look into the reasons why an employee takes time off work.

What are the causes of absenteeism?

As this boundary between personal and professional life has become increasingly tenuous, being happy in the profession is synonymous with quality of life.

However, many employees fail to achieve this satisfaction. Over time, the situation becomes so untenable for him that missing work, being late, or leaving early are the only solutions.

Generally speaking, people are often absent due to internal and external factors.

We can say that the internal ones are directly related to the company, while the external ones have to do with the personal life. Below, we list the most common situations:

Internal factors that motivate absenteeism:

• Bad working conditions;

• Lack of ergonomics, which leads to occupational diseases;

• Work overload;

• Lack of security and situations that generate risks;

• Bullying among colleagues;

• Discrimination, whether by gender, race, functional diversity, etc.;

• Harassment between leadership and employees, whether moral or sexual;

• Lack of present and engaged management;

• Dissatisfaction with the organizational climate, among others.

External factors, of a personal nature, can be:

• Family issues;

• Diseases;

• Psychological problems;

• Precariousness of public transport;

• Climatic conditions that make travel difficult, etc.

As you can see, there are many reasons that lead to absenteeism.

With this in mind, HR must act strategically to understand the situation of each employee, collect data and propose a solution that meets his and the company's expectations.

Types of absenteeism at work:

1) Justified absences:

Justified absenteeism is usually one in which the company knows that the employee will need to be absent, as in the case of medical appointments, illnesses or maternity leave.

We can say, then, that absences can be justified when any condition arises that prevents or hinders the employee to carry out his activities, putting him at risk. This type of absence is permitted by law.

However, management must be aware of the recurrence of this reason, as it may be a sign of a greater problem involving the health of the employee. A common cause of absence is depression, which has reached more and more people over the years, being one of the main causes of absenteeism at work.

In such cases, the company must offer all necessary assistance, including permission for specialized treatment. There are cases of medical leaves that imply the absence of the worker, such as maternity and paternity leave, when a child is born or adopted.

As this is the time to dedicate to the family and readjust the routine, the law allows the removal.

2) Unjustified absences

Unjustified absenteeism is considered unpredictable. It occurs when the employee needs to be absent from work without company permission.

It can happen as a result of internal conflicts, accidents or when the professional is late.

As examples of unexcused absences, we can mention personal problems, which are often unpredictable and cause delays, out-of-hours departures and the absence itself.

Another motivating factor is stress, which is very common in organizations. It is caused by overwork, pressure, mismanagement, personal or internal problems, dissatisfaction, etc.

To identify cases of absence due to stress, HR must be aware and always measure the degree of employee satisfaction.

Finally, lack of motivation ends up causing delays or absences. In this case, the company must think of strategies to improve the well-being of employees, engaging them and, consequently, increasing the team's productivity.

How to Calculate the Absenteeism Rate?

We saw, then, that absenteeism brings consequences such as increased operating costs, increased overtime, low productivity and employee and customer dissatisfaction.

To measure the absenteeism rate in your organization, calculate the number of hours that each worker should work during the month and add them up.

• If you have 10 employees working 8 hours per day for 22 days a month, the total hours worked would be:

10 x 8 x 22 = 1,760 hours

After this survey, you must account for the number of hours of absence during the month, considering tardiness, early departures, and partial or total absences.

First, calculate individually how many minutes or hours each employee missed and then add up all the results.

•   Let's go to the formula:

This result will demonstrate how much of your team's total productivity time is being lost in absences, delays and early departures. The higher the absenteeism rate in the company, the greater the financial loss.

What is the Acceptable Absenteeism Rate?

The index may vary according to the segment and size of the company.

But generally speaking, an absenteeism rate of up to 4% is considered acceptable. When the value exceeds this limit, one must be alert.

Impacts of absenteeism on payroll:

Absenteeism can be deducted from the payroll as long as you have effective time control.

But that, in itself, does not guarantee that your company will not lose money.

When an employee is frequently absent from work, tasks are backed up and deadlines are missed, which can impact customer satisfaction, staff productivity and also revenue.

If someone assumes responsibility and starts performing the tasks of those who are absent, you start to pay extra hours for those who are overloaded with work, increasing your payroll.

The cost of absenteeism can go further. When a team realizes that one of the members does not fulfill their role and is absent repeatedly, a climate of dissatisfaction sets in, which can compromise the productivity of the entire company. As a result, you will incur even greater costs.

The problem can be further extended when an employee, already overloaded with a 12-hour workday, for example, becomes ill and requests leave from the INSS due to depression or stress.

The first 15 days of medical certificate are paid by the organization itself, without the availability of labor. After this period, the INSS pays salaries, but the company keeps the person on its payroll and often ends up unable to hire a replacement.

As you can see, what seems like a small problem without much relevance can become a real snowball, affecting your company's results in a short time.

How to get around the situation?

The first measure to be taken by the company is to calculate the payroll discount correctly.

At the first sign of absenteeism, the employee must be asked about the reasons and be aware that the respective amounts will be deducted from their payment.

Taking absenteeism into account in the payroll calculation is quite simple, you just need a timesheet system integrated into the payroll software.

It is even possible to signal, in advance of the closing of the month, that the employee will have a reduction in salary due to absences, through partial time control reports. Often, this simple action is able to reduce and even eliminate delays and early departures.

However, as we have seen, there are many situations that lead to absenteeism in companies, so we need to treat solutions in a more personalized way.

5 steps to reduce absenteeism:

1. Invest in the well-being of employees:

A major contributor to the high absenteeism rates in companies is employee dissatisfaction.

According to a survey by Love Mondays, the general satisfaction of Brazilians with the work environment is around 3.47, on a scale from 0 to 5.

Among the reasons that generate such dissatisfaction are the quality of life, career opportunities, organizational climate and culture.

For now, let's focus on quality of life. An employee who does not feel safe in the work environment will hardly present good results.

High unhealthy conditions can cause physical and psychological damage, thus increasing absenteeism.

To solve this problem, invest in your team's well-being. Encourage workplace gymnastics, healthy eating and breaks during work hours to increase productivity.

2. Take care of occupational health:

In Brazil, the biggest cause of absenteeism rates in companies is illness.

In recent years, cases of occupational diseases (due to work) have grown by 25% in Brazil.

Therefore, it is essential that your company implement measures that prevent the development of occupational diseases, such as the use of ergonomic furniture, adequate lighting, 10-minute breaks every 50 minutes worked, among others.

It is also necessary to care for the quality of life of workers, implementing programs of occupational gymnastics, physical activities such as yoga and meditation, in addition to making an effective control of hours, avoiding working hours of 12 hours, for example.

3. Improve internal communication:

It may seem simple to address this issue, but communication is essential to ensure alignment between teams.

In addition, keeping the team on the same page allows for greater growth in the sector and building a healthy organizational climate.

However, to reach this point, it is necessary to implement the appropriate channels that allow for optimizing communication and solving noise.

Invest in social networks and corporate messaging applications to facilitate integration between employees and between teams.

It is also worth encouraging the use of these platforms by leaders. Managers must always lead by example.

4. Provide feedback whenever necessary:

More and more companies have adopted the feedback methodology to solve behavioral problems and encourage individual growth of employees.

Before taking a drastic measure, such as a warning or suspension, how about having an honest conversation with the employee to try to understand what has motivated that behavior?

Together, leader and employee can find simple solutions and implement an action plan, regardless of the reason for absenteeism.

In addition, leaders can observe if problems are repeated among the teams and, together with HR, raise possible improvements for the company.

5. Establish incentive programs:

Another survey shows what today's professionals consider valid for feeling motivated and satisfied at work: signed work papers, performance awards, incentive campaigns, travel and public recognition for achievements.

This means that, in order to keep the best talents engaged and motivated, the company needs to look for ways to encourage them.

For this, how about establishing an incentive program to reduce the number of unexcused absences?

The rewards you can offer will be less costly than absence losses, you can be sure.

If your company does not yet work with this type of incentive, it is worth thinking about rewards such as a pre-programmed day off, gifts, basic food basket, etc.

Or, who knows, it's time to implement benefits such as the PLR, for example.

The career plan is also an interesting point to be considered, as it encourages employees to dedicate themselves and, therefore, accumulate promotions.

With this strategy, we offer opportunities within the company and promote the development of talent.

By rewarding the most assiduous professionals, you guarantee the company's results and also encourage others to follow your example.