I'm not feeling so good," your employee croaks over the
phone, just a little too hoarsely. Most employers discount sick
calls, whether real or fake, as just one of those things. However,
recent statistics show unscheduled absences have lingering effects,
especially on small businesses.
A rise in employee absenteeism is coming on like a bad flu, and
small businesses are feeling the symptoms. Companies with fewer
than 100 employees suffered from an 18 percent increase in
absenteeism this year over last year, according to a survey by CCH
Inc., a business materials publisher. This increase was far more
substantial than the average 3.5 percent increase experienced by
businesses in general.
Unfortunately, though small businesses may be the most affected
by absenteeism, they're also usually least likely to do
something about it. "Most companies are beginning to
understand that unscheduled absences and sick leaves pose a
significant cost," says Paul Gibson, an attorney with CCH.
"However, a lot of smaller companies can't focus full time
on implementing programs to get the situation under
control."
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According to the survey, the maximum annual cost of absenteeism
per employee for companies with fewer than 100 workers shot up like
a fever, from $267 per person in 1994 to $622 in 1995. Though this
marked the highest rate of increase among businesses of all sizes,
small companies reported feeling the pain less in obvious dollar
figures and more in indirect costs. "They know it's
happening," says Gibson. "They just can't measure
it."
Still, those indirect costs are nothing to sneeze at. According
to the survey, the greatest casualty of unscheduled absenteeism is
productivity, followed by customer service, employee morale and
ability to meet deadlines.
Besides indulging in mental health days, more employees are
requesting days off just to run errands. According to Gibson,
personal illness accounted for only 45 percent of total
absenteeism, while dealing with family issues accounted for 27
percent of unscheduled time off. Thirteen percent of businesses
surveyed said their employees used sick days to take care of
personal needs, while 6 percent said employees were not so much
sick as they were sick and tired-they needed the break to escape
stress.
"In a work/family context, people just need more time to
manage their obligations outside of work," Gibson says.
The prescription? Gibson recommends small businesses adopt the
principles of the increasingly popular "paid leave bank
program," which allots employees a group of days for vacation,
sick or personal leave. That way, employees don't have to fake
illness to get a day off-and you get advance notice so you can plan
around absences and staff more effectively. "The best thing
small companies can do is give people the opportunity to manage
their time off as they see fit," says Gibson, "and not
force them to classify themselves as sick according to some company
policy."
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