Absenteeism is a persistent challenge for businesses of all sizes. When employees are absent, it impacts productivity, strains team dynamics, and can lead to increased costs for the company.
According to the latest CIPD Health and Wellbeing at Work report, the average rate of employee absence in the UK now stands at 7.8 days per employee per year, the highest for over a decade. This begs the question, why?
In this guide, we’ll take you through what absenteeism is and its causes, as well as share some handy advice to help you reduce it.
What is absenteeism at work?
Absenteeism is when an employee doesn’t turn up for work regularly over a period of time with little to no explanation. It can also include partial absences such as lateness and early departures.
Unlike genuine absences due to medical conditions or emergencies, absenteeism isn’t classed as a legitimate absence.
What are the types of absence?
Not all absences fit into the same category. Typically, they can be classed as:
Authorised and planned absences
These include absences that are pre-approved and planned, such as holidays, parental leave or compassionate leave. In these cases, it allows for the right preparations to be made so that any work and tasks can be scheduled around their absence accordingly.
Unplanned but genuine absences
Not all time off can be anticipated and planned. Sometimes illness, emergencies or family-related issues are unavoidable and these absences are simply a part of life.
Unauthorised absences
Absences that happen without prior notice or approval, such as no-shows or frequent time off without valid reasons, are when absenteeism becomes an issue. They can also be a sign of wider issues, including disengagement or workplace dissatisfaction.
Common causes of absenteeism
Absenteeism can stem from various factors, including:
- Illness or injury
- Stress and burnout
- Poor engagement
- Workplace culture
- Familial matters
- Commuting issues
- Low morale
- Mental health
As an employer, it’s up to you to determine what you deem to be acceptable reasons for absence. These should be outlined in an absence management policy.
How do you calculate absenteeism?
To measure absenteeism for an employee, take the number of their unexcused absences during a period of time, divide it by the total period, then multiply this by 100 to get a percentage.
Example:
Jane takes four unexcused absences over the course of a month (25 working days).
4 ÷ 25 = 0.16
0.16 x 100 = 16% absentee rate
Another method you could use is the Bradford Factor – a simple formula that supports the idea that repeat absences have a greater operational impact than long-term sickness. HR Planner has a built-in Bradford Factor feature which allows you to generate an instant league table report of absence across your organisation. You can then use this information to help reduce absences by implementing comprehensive support and monitoring for your team.
How can absenteeism be reduced?
Although some of the causes of absenteeism can’t be controlled, there are ways you can decrease the number of unexcused absences by improving the employee experience overall. These include:
Gather actionable insights
In order to implement steps to curb absenteeism, you firstly need to spot emerging trends and issues before they escalate. HR Planner offers a range of features to support you with this, including our customisable dashboards.
Effectively giving you a bird’s-eye view of the insights you want to see, your dashboard can be personalised with intuitive widgets relating to absence that will help you make data-driven decisions to improve attendance and engagement.
Identify the root cause
If you’re experiencing an uptick in absenteeism, it’s important you identify the reasons behind any unauthorised absences. Are your employees worried that their leave request will be denied? Do they feel unappreciated or disengaged, and therefore see no obligation to inform you that they’ll be missing work?
Create a place where your team loves to work
While building a positive company culture doesn’t happen overnight, there are things you can do to guide it along. This could involve incorporating wellbeing initiatives, personal and professional development opportunities, or methods to recognise achievements.
To help you create a culture of connection, check out our 15-step checklist.
Streamline leave requests
Having a system that makes managing leave and absence a breeze will ensure that everything is tracked accurately. With HR Planner, our software has been designed to allow employees to easily keep track of both their own leave and that of their colleagues. This helps to promote effective planning and reduces the risk of miscommunication.
With unlimited custom leave types, you can set everything from sick days to training days, and even determine which count toward allowances and require approval from line managers.
Carry out return-to-work (RTO) interviews
If an employee has been off for an extended period of time, it might be beneficial to arrange a RTO interview to help ease them back into their role. It also provides an opportunity to discuss any issues and set steps to improve their absenteeism.
Recognise and reward attendance
By rewarding employees with great attendance records (aside from authorised and genuine absences), you can incentivise other members of your team to improve their own.
Synchronise calendars
iCAL feeds are a great way to exchange calendar data to ensure everyone is on the same page. Leave data from HR Planner can be integrated directly into calendar applications like Outlook and Gmail, meaning teams can plan effectively and avoid unnecessary disruptions.
Boost engagement
One of the key drivers of absenteeism is disengagement. HR Planner has developed a Forms & Surveys module that will help you to involve your team, discover how they feel and pinpoint areas for improvement to help you move forward.
Each survey can be customised with conditional logic, branching and a range of input fields, allowing you to gather actionable insights.
Join the growing list of UK SMEs who are using our absence management software to combat absenteeism
Absenteeism doesn’t have to be a headache. With HR Planner, businesses can manage and reduce it efficiently, giving them the tools to track, analyse, and address absences in real-time. By streamlining leave requests, spotting absence patterns early, and providing valuable insights, HR Planner helps organisations maintain productivity while supporting employee engagement and wellbeing.
If you’re ready to transform the way you manage staff absences and improve overall workplace productivity, start your free trial today.