The majority of companies large and small have some type of applied policy regarding absences in the workplace. Undoubtedly, the policy outlines some sort of threshold on what constitutes abuse and may even outline the measures that will be taken to address and curb abuse. Having such a policy is part of Human Resources 101. Any experienced manager can name which employees are reliable and which ones can't seem to get to the office on time on a regular basis. It is easy to list the effects of employee absenteeism: you've got your usual negative affect on productivity, the cost of paying out sick leave while also having to incur the cost of another employee covering the absent employee's workload, and there are the associated administrative costs. It can be fairly safe to say that much of what affects employee absenteeism is employee health. The more health issues an employee has, the more likely (not in all cases but in the majority) that the employee will have a higher frequency of call-outs. After watching an episode of HBO's documentary series The Weight of the Nation, I was reminded of another, greater, impact on a company's bottom-line......presenteeism.
Presenteeism is defined by Dictionary.com as: "the practice of coming to work despite illness, injury, anxiety, etc., often resulting in reduced productivity" This definition can also be expanded to include the loss of productivity that occurs when employees come to work with general limitations as a result of their health status. For example, WebMD cites a study that indicates presenteeism is a cost of obesity. According to the 2010 study, "the health-related cost of obesity among U.S. workers is $73.1 billion a year - enough to pay the salaries of 1.8 million new workers". Staggering figures, right? Remember, this is over and above costs to a company connected to absenteeism.
What I think the great take-away here is that the importance of company health plans cannot be stressed enough. Specifically those that have intertwined health tools, incentives, and strong support.
