06.08.06
True costs of absenteeism
Risk assessors, Alliance Corporate Risk Management, have released figures from a new survey assessing the impact of employee absences.
The results show that a fifth of organisations do not know their absence rate, and half do not know the true cost of such absences. CEO of Alliance, John McLaren-Stewart, explained that when given the national cost of over £12 billion a year, employers find it difficult to relate to, meaning that they have little comprehension of the money that they lose through employee absences. In actual fact, this works out as much as £500 per employee each year.
Although absenteeism is a serious issue for HR departments across the country, it is not always treated as such due to departments’ lack of awareness of its true costs.
Mr. McLaren-Stewart explained, “By managing absence, by examining the root causes, you can reduce it. This helps build morale which leads to happier staff, who are less stressed and therefore take off less time – and because there are less absences, the workforce overall is less stressed from having to fill in for their colleagues’ absences.”
This is a “win-win situation”, but does not happen often. It is hoped that these figures will make employers realise the impact that absenteeism has and encourage them to take steps to tackle the problem.
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