Absenteeism:causes,costs and remedies - Essay Example

Absenteeism refers to the failure on the part of employees to report to work though they are scheduled to work.In other words,"unauthorized absences constitute absenteeism". Absenteeism cost money to the organization,besides reflecting employees' dissatisfaction with the company. Its annual cost has been estimated at over $ 40 billion for US organizations and $ 12 billion for Canadian firms (Rhodes & Steers, 1990). In Germany, absence cost industrial firms more than 31 billion Euros each year (Schmid, 1996).

These figures indicate the importance to an organization of keeping absenteeism low. It's obviously difficult for an organization to operate smoothly and to attain its objectives if employees fail to report to their job. The workflow is disrupted and often important decisions must be delayed. In organizations that rely heavily on assembly-line production, absenteeism can be considerably more than disruption; it can result in a drastic reduction in the quality of output, and, in some cases, it can bring about a complete shut down of the production facility.

Levels of absenteeism beyond the normal range in any organization have a direct impact on that organizations effectiveness and efficiency. Absenteeism can be categorized into three types i.e. Long absentees, Habitual absentees and Occasional absentees.Causes: Though absenteeism has been believed by social scientists to be associated with job satisfaction and neurosis, it is not solely due to them. As suggested by Gawhane (1990) there could be several causes and could be categorized in the following factors: (1) Personal factors-age, marital status, number of children, sickness or prolonged illness, enjoyment, casual attitude, quarrel some nature etc. (2) Background factors-rural-urban background, level of education, religion, socio-economic status, pattern of occupational mobility, family problems. (3) Organizational factors-High wage structure, length of service duty allocation (4) Trade union activities-unionism, annual conferences, seminars and monthly meetings, mass leave, labour unrest, pressure of trade unions. (5) Social factors-neighborhood, involvement, family disintegration, Community involvement, participations in Voluntary organizations.

Many more different causes of absenteeism could be categorized as personal causes, in-organization causes and community and social causes. Socio-cultural factors and job-related factors are the causes of absenteeism. Faulty induction policies to discontent and maladjustment also have been found a valid explanation for the phenomenon of absenteeism. Lack of conducive environment and work situation and organization fail to initiate and provide to its employee opportunities to grow, could increase absenteeism.

So employee absence cannot be viewed alone on the basis of work place or work environment. Absenteeism is associated with individual and group behavior. There appears a significant correlation between lifestyle and behavioral factors such as smoking and excessive alcohol intake to absenteeism (Bertera, 1991). Workers with a diagnosis of alcohol dependence were found to have six fold increase in absence frequency and seven times the days lost when non-work absences of more than five days were assessed (Brook and Price, 1989).

Absenteeism can be categorized as unavoidable and avoidable absenteeism. Avoidable absenteeism arises because of night shifts, opportunities for moonlighting and extra income, indebtedness, and lack of job security, job dissatisfaction and unfriendly supervision. Costs: At the start, we just mentioned the cost of absenteeism in major developed nations. As we know that the absence of workers have major financial implications for the organizations. Due to absence of workers direct and indirect cost could be felt on the organizations.

In some industries such as assembly line or the places where interdependence in higher, absenteeism becomes manpower complement to meet staffing needs costs much more. Absenteeism direct cost could