To: Employer Clients and FriendsBy: Jeffrey Tucker and Keely Espinar, Esquires
Employment News
Surviving Tough Financial Times: Minimize Absenteeism
November 15 2011Number 20
A News Publication of King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul, LLC
Employment Law and Business Law Practice GroupsJeffrey T. Tucker, Employment ChairThe Skinny on Absenteeism:What It Is and What It Costs
Employee absences generally fall intoone of four categories:(1)
Planned:
These are absences that arerequested by the employee and subse-quentlyapprovedbyyou.Whiletheyarecostly, they are probably the least intru-sivetypeofabsenceandarenecessarytorecharge your workforce. An example iswhen an employee takes a personal dayor a vacation day.(2)
“Call offs”:
Perhaps the most difficultand expensive type of absence, this iswhenemployeescalloffofworkforape-riodoftimewithoutpriorapproval,suchasasickday.Theseabsencestypicallydonot last more than 5 days.(3)
Long term:
Extended absences thatare most likely not planned and are gen-erally due to disability or medial leaveunder the Family Medical Leave Act(“FMLA”). Employees on long term leaveare most often compensated by short or long-termdisability,workers’compensa-tion, or accrued sick leave time.(4)
Intermittent:
Sporadic leave that mayeither be pre-approved or without anyadvance notice. Examples are employeedoctor or therapist appointments or when employees need to leave workearly due to a particular condition, suchas asthma attacks.The most obvious cost of absenteeism isthe pay an employee receives for timenot worked, such as sick or personaltime. However, perhaps a greater cost isthe unavoidable impact on the opera-tions of your business. If you choose toreplace the absent worker, you are facedwith either bringing in a temporaryworker, who is unfamiliar with the job,orpayingextracompensationtoanother worker in overtime, or adding responsi-bilities to another employee or supervi-sor.Each option hurts the productivity of your business, and may well increaseemployee dissatisfaction due to the in-crease of responsibilities without, inmany cases, a corresponding increase inpay. If you choose to do nothing, how-ever, your bottom line may suffer due tolower productivity.
What To Do With HabitualOffenders
Almost every business is plagued by theoccasional employee who is forever call-ingoffofwork.Manywell-meaningbusi-ness owners, HR managers, andsupervisors “let it slide” when an em-ployee frequently calls off, thinking thatitiseasiertoacquiescetooneortwosickdays to avoid a complaint or lawsuit.Sometimes this philosophy does savemoney but many times it does not.Generally, the two laws that require em-ployee leave time are the Americans
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The U.S. Department of Labor reports that nation-wide, employee absenteeism costs employersan estimated $100 billion per year. With the arrival of the cold and flu season, it is particularly timely to address and revise your policies and practices for managing employee absences. Thisnewsletter reviews useful options for managing absenteeism.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius
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Emp News 20 - 2011
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