Common Causes of Workplace Absenteeism and How to Tackle Them
When you are running a company, you can end up finding that days and days of the year are lost through your employees being absent from work. Therefore, you need to make sure that you do all that you can to reduce this workplace absenteeism problem. Which will, in turn, create a more pleasant environment for your members of staff as well.
There are plenty of common causes of workplace absenteeism, but the following blog post will check out just a few and what you can do to address them.
Stress and burnout
Certainly one of the number one issues that impacts workers is stress. While people like to be challenged at work, when it starts to tip over into them becoming overly stressed out. This is when it can quite quickly lead to burnout if you are not careful. Therefore, you need to make sure that you don’t allow this to happen with your staff.
Managing your workload (and that of your employees) effectively and ensuring that no one is taking on more than they have to should be a central part of all that you are doing. Managers should also create a more supportive environment. So that people can go to them when they feel like there is too much on their plate.
There are more and more workplaces that are taking stress in the workplace seriously. If you also do the same, it will certainly prove invaluable and will help reduce the number of days taken off during the year.
Accidents in the workplace
Sometimes, it is going to be the case that days are lost due to accidents that have occurred in the workplace. Not only can this cause members of staff to have to take days off. But it may also mean that they will have to get in touch with a slip and fall attorney. Which can also be potentially costly for your business as a whole. And is likely to result in your reputation being damaged, which may therefore make the recruitment process more difficult in the future.
The best way of tackling this issue is going to be by looking at your workplace health and safety policy. Ensuring that it is properly updated and you are taking into account any accidents that are likely to happen. You should also roll out proper training across the board. As well as onboarding new members of staff properly and giving them the heads up about any provisions that they need to take. It is also essential that you provide all the necessary personal protective equipment. And that people are wearing it whenever they should be.
Poor diet and fitness
Many jobs in the modern world are quite sedentary and leave people simply sitting at their desks over an extended period of time. Not only is this more likely to promote a less energetic lifestyle. But it also creates a situation in which they are having unhealthy snacks or getting takeaway food all the time, which is not good for them. While you may not be able to address this problem entirely as an employer. What you can do is to encourage a better quality of lifestyle. In the first place, this means providing healthy snacks in the workplace that can be enjoyed—as opposed to all of the junk. That is typically and readily available in the canteen, for example.
Not only this, but you can also look to provide some fitness classes or perhaps some subsidised exercise classes. As a way of encouraging your members of staff to enjoy a better quality of life.
Avoiding managers or bosses
Closely linked to the issue of workplace stress and burnout, if people are in a situation where they feel the constant need to avoid managers and bosses. This can easily lead them to wanting to stay off work. Again, there is not going to be a quick fix here. But what you can do is to provide regular training programs to your managers to ensure that they are the best that they can be.
When companies get larger, it also tends to be quite a top-down structure. This means that you should be able to lead by example. Not only this, but it is also important that you create the type of environment where people feel comfortable and ready to speak out if they see something that is not right.
Read More: How to Recognize the Signs of Depression and Anxiety
Personal commitments
Sometimes, the issue is that people are dealing with various personal commitments rather than working. Which can mean that they need to take time off work. This is particularly the case when they have young kids and they have various school runs and other responsibilities that need to be dealt with. One of the ways that you can get around this as an employer and encourage them to still complete their regular working hours is to have a more flexible working pattern. This way, people can fit their hours in around the school runs and other responsibilities that they may well have.
These are just a few of the most common issues that can occur within a workplace absenteeism that often mean that people will stay off rather than coming in. However, hopefully you have found some useful advice about how you can prevent this particular issue from occurring. Thereby creating an environment in which people feel fully ready and able to come into work on a regular basis.
The first issue is around tackling stress and creating the type of working environment. In which people do not feel like they are going to burn out entirely. Not only this, but there can also be more done in terms of creating an environment of better managers who are supportive and caring. Plus, there is the common issue of workplace absenteeism accidents and wellbeing. If you are able to take steps to address this, you are bound to make it less likely that people will need to stay off work for any reason. If you can do more to encourage a healthy lifestyle too. This should help them to stay fitter and healthier for longer.
Conclusion
Finally, you have the option of more flexible working, which is becoming more and more common in the modern world. And helps to create an environment in which people feel like they can fit the other myriad of responsibilities in their life in with the rest of their work. This also helps to create more job satisfaction and means coming into work is less of a chore.
