Absenteeism 2

7/29/2019 Absenteeism 2

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Absenteeism Facts

Paid absences are not universal

39% of U.S. employees do not receive paid sickleave; 1/3 of FT Iowa employees have nopaid sick leave(81% of part-timers).

Financial cost estimates are highly variable

Absenteeism costs are about 9% of payroll

Can necessitate temporary or surplus employees

Can affect customer service

Shareholders/Boards of Directors expect control


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Absenteeism Issues

What is excessive? Multiple metrics:

Number of sick days used

- Dept of Labor: Mean is 8 days

- Iowa data suggests people use half

Changes in absence rates (paid unscheduled

absence hours/paid productive hours)

Range: 1.9% in 2003 to 3.1% in 2008

Tends to be lower in bad economic times, higher in goodtimes; higher in public sector than in private sector


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Absenteeism Issues


Number of sick days used

- Dept of Labor: Mean is 8 days

- Iowa data suggests people use half

Changes in absence rates (paid unscheduled

absence hours/paid productive hours)

Range: 1.9% in 2003 to 3.1% in 2008Tends to be lower in bad economic times, higher in good

times; higher in public sector (4%) than in private

sector (3%)


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Absenteeism Issues


Percent of working hours lost toabsenteeism (> 3% excessive)

# worker days lost per month(Avg # employees) X (# work days)

Need industry/ region comparatives


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ABSENTEEISM COSTS

(lower level employee, 2011)

1. Salary ($13.26/hour) 106.06

2. Benefits 29.91

3. Replacement employee 10.89

(cross-training, temp help, supervision, overtime)

4. Unabsorbed burden (unused capital 72.07

equipment, rent, light, in-efficient

use of materials)

5. Loss profit contribution (value added) 87.03

$305.96


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Focus: Managing Voluntary Absenteeism

Determining what

percent of absence isvoluntary (avoidable)and what is non-voluntary is tricky

Experts believe 40% isvoluntary and 60% isnon-voluntary (e.g.,

personal or familyillness)

40% may be the max

managers can affect


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Summarizing: Separating Voluntary &

Nonvoluntary Absence

May be contingent on empowerment (discretion) of

supervisors

Absence policies remain ambiguous

a. Personal/dependent illness

b. Gray areas: relative illness, business affairs,

lack of transportation, domestic maintenance

c. Truly discretionary: take a day off, wedding,special event


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Summarizing: Separating Voluntary &

Nonvoluntary Absence

Explains popularity of PTO (Paid Time Off) and

no fault absence policies. SHRM: 33% of firms

in 1997, 67% in 2005, 47% of firms in 2010

Generous plan: 10 sick days, 3 personal days, 5

holidays, 10 vacation days for a total of 28 days.

Failure to distinguish between absences and PTO

impedes absence research as voluntary & non-

voluntary absence behaviors are not separated;record-keeping also impeded by use of different

measures and time frames(see next slide)


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Absenteeism Measures

1. FrequencyMeasure: total # of times/period absent ( 4)

2. Severity Measure: total # of days/period ( 7)

(most common)

3. Attitudinal Measure: Frequency of 1 day absences (2)

4. Medical Measure: Frequency of > 3 day absences (1)

5. Worst Day: # people absent on any given

day (e.g., Monday)

February

S M T W TH F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

March

1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

April

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30


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3. Personal Characteristics

-Education -Sex/Family

-Org. tenure responsibility

-Age (also depends -Family size

on sex) -Personality

2. Recruitment + Selection

Job expectations about

Attendance

7. Ability to Attend

-Health (Depression, pain

cardio fitness, smoking,

drug use)

-Illness & accidents

-Family responsibilities-Transportation problems

-Travel distance1. Job Situation

-Job autonomy

-Job level

-Work group size

-Role Stress

-Considerate

leadership style-Coworker

relationships

-Scheduling

(flexible, rotating)

4. Job Attitudes

-Job satisfaction

-Organ.commitment

-Job involvement

6. Attendance

Motivation

8.Employee

Absenteeism

(Attendance)

5. Pressures to Attend-Economic/market conditions

-Human Resource Practices

(incentives, control policies)

-Work group norms/culture

-Profit sharing/employee

share ownership

Model of Employee Absenteeism


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Review of Absenteeism Model

Box 8: Employee Absenteeism or Attendance

Box 1: Job Situation

Job autonomy Absenteeism

Box 2: Recruitment and Selection

Box 3: Personal Characteristics

Box 4: Job Attitudes

Box 5: Pressures to Attend (next slide)


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Personal Characteristics (Box 3)

Education: No consistent pattern.

Org tenure: Tenure Absenteeism

Age: Younger more short term; older more long term.

Age/sex: Men: Age AbsenteeismWomen: No relationship

Family responsibility: Parental status and elder care

issues (by 2020 1 in 3 will have the latter; boxes 3 & 7)

Family Size: Size Absenteeism


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Personality

(Box 3) Conscientiousness Absenteeism

Extroversion Absenteeism

Anxiety/depression Absenteeism


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Human Resource Practices for Managing

Absenteeism (Box 5)

Review incentive

systems like lotteries

(nurse example) Be willing to modify

practices over time

Determine whether

cost/benefit of

incentives are

consistent with

organizational culture


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Human Resource Practices for Managing

Absenteeism (Box 5 continued)

Work group norms and

culture Profit sharing; employee

ownership


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Family Responsibilities: Examples of Costs

Associated with Eldercare

Absenteeism Workday interruptions Going part-time Eldercare crisis

Supervisor time Taking unpaid leave

Replacing the 9% of workers who quit

Solutions: subsidizing in-home care foremployees dependent, referral services to

caregivers and nursing homes, providingextended leaves of absence.

Be employee need specific: Japanese heartache leave


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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INCREASED

UNDERSTANDING OF ABSENTEEISM

1. Use standardized measures and time frames

2. Study attendance

3. Study white collar absenteeism

4. Examine how other HR practices affect absenteeism

(next 2 slides)

5. Encourage health

6. Engage in more creative thought


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Effects of Various Human Resource Practices on

Reducing Absenteeism

Method # of Studies Effect

Well Pay (unused sick leave) 4 High

Flextime 10 High

Compressed work schedules 5 Medium

Discipline 12 MediumRecognition 6 Medium

Wellness programs 6 Low

Other financial incentives (bonus) 7 Low

Games 6 Low

Profit sharing/employee ownership 3 Medium

Team/group reward systems ?? ???

PTOs, time-off banks ?? ???


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Effects of Various Human Resource Practices on

Reducing Absenteeism: HR Professionals

Method % of Companies Effectiveness

using in 2007 (1-5 very effective)

Well Pay (Buy back unused sick leave) 53 3.4

Verification of illness 74 3.2

No-fault 59 2.9

Disciplinary action 89 3.4

Personal recognition 57 2.6

Part of yearly performance review 82 2.9

Bonus 51 3.3

Paid-leave banks (PTO) * 60 3.6

Adapted from CCH, www,cch.coom/preess/news/2007

*PTO may not decrease absenteeism, just make it more planned.


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PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR

REDUCING ABSENTEEISM1. Increase job satisfaction/autonomy via

a. Job redesign c. Decreased stress

b. Supervision d. Flexible schedules

2. Use motivation strategies more frequently and creatively

a. Operant conditioning

b. Goal setting

3. Use work group dynamics

a. Small groups

b. Promote attendance norm; tie to rewards?

4. Consider time lags of interventions (next slide)


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Strategies for Affecting Absenteeism over Time*(Length of Time to Impact)

Short-term: < 3 months Mid-term: 3 months - 1 year Long-term: > 1 year

Attendance incentives

Injuries/illnesses

Low stress/injustice

Social pressure to attend work

Job satisfaction

Organizational commitment

Job involvement

Meaningful workGroup/culture with strong

attendance norm

Non-union or no paid sick

leave environment

Day shift

Flextime

Gender

Age

Depression

SmokingHeavy drinking

Drug use

Exercise

*Based on Harrison & Martocchio, 1998,Journal of Management24 (3): 305-350.


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Readings

Navarro & Bass

Kuzmits & Adams

Johns

Judge et al.


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Readings

What were your take-aways from Navarro

& Bass?


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Kuzmits & Adams (2009)

What were the key parts of a no-faultabsence system?

Summarize the study setting and

research design

What were the major findings?

How generalizable are these results?


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Johns Article

Employees & managers estimate absenteeism

inaccurately. Why?

Under-reporting tendency noted in 9

hypotheses, suggesting bias extends to grouplevel

What was the sample and attendance policy?

Review Table 1 to understand why there aretwo sets of data and Hyp. 4


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Johns Article

What did the partial replication show?

Implications: People under-report absenteeismextensively. Are they deliberately lying? How

can the under-reporting tendency beaddressed?

Is self-serving bias evident in non-westernsocieties?

Though no actual absence data, yes. Stronger

at group level among Chinese managers

Results: Hyp 1 2 3 6 7 & 8 and Partial Replication


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Mean 9

Days 8.83 School Teachers

Absent 8 8.36

7 7.47 7.31

6.21

6

H1 Utility Employees

5 H6 { 5.91 H3H

7

{ H2

4 3.65

3.22

3 H8 (ns) 3.31

Utility Managers

2

1

Occupa- Group Self Actual

tional Norm Estimates Report Absence

Absence MeasureFigure 1. Mean days absent (estimated or actual) for three samples.

Results: Hyp. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 & 8 and Partial Replication


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Judge et al. (1997)

Relates Big Five to absenteeism. Move

beyond situational causes of absenteeism to

dispositional one which might be usable at the

time of selection

How is each trait hypothesized to be related to

absence behavior?

What does Hyp. #4, stating that absencehistory will mediatethe relationship between

personality and absence mean?


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Research Model: Judge et al. 1997

Personality

Traits

Absence

Proneness

Absenteeism

T1 MediatorT2T3


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Judge et al. (1997)

What was the sample and response rate?How were personality, absence proneness, and

absence behavior measured?

Were Hypotheses 1-3 supported? Table 2

Was Hypothesis #4 supported? Table 3

In what ways, if any, could you use thisinformation in the selection process?

Documents

Absenteeism 2