FACT SHEET

Workforce Ready

Workforce Challenge:
Managing Employee Absence
Employee absence and leave — whether planned, incidental, or extended — carry costs, SHRM indicates that the impact
risks, and productivity hits to your organization. of absenteeism is real and has a
tangible impact.
Did you know that...
Other effects of unplanned absences
• 75% of respondents perceive employee absences as having a “moderate” to “large” impact in addition to productivity loss:9
on productivity and revenue3
»» Adds to workload 69%
• Absence is a productivity killer — on average, incidental, unplanned absences result in a »» Increases stress 61%
19% net lost productivity per day4 »» Disrupts work of others 59%
• When considering both the direct (salary) and indirect (productivity loss from replacements, »» Hurts morale 48%
coworker lost productivity, and supervisor lost productivity) costs of paid time off, the total cost of »» Reduces quality of work 40%
absenteeism as a percentage of payroll is between 20.9% and 22.1%5 »» Adds mandatory overtime 29%

• Employees with supervisory responsibility spend an average of 4.2 hours per week dealing with absences,
»» Requires additional training 20%
including obtaining replacements, adjusting workflow, or providing training6
»» Penalizes or reflects badly
on group/team 19%
• The average productivity loss associated with an unplanned absence is 36.6% 7

• The indirect costs of absenteeism: lost productivity, unexpected overtime, and cost of replacement
workers make up two-thirds of the cost of absences8

60%–80% Average reduction in time required

to manage unexpected employee absence1

4.2 HOURS/WEEK spent by supervisors

dealing with absences2
 Workforce Challenge: Managing Employee Absence

What if you could...

Better track paid time off to not only provide consistent treatment of employees, but also better control the large direct
and indirect expenses associated with paid absences

Implement proper tracking and scheduling to accurately fill any serious gap in your staffing with an appropriate
replacement within minutes

Better manage vacations and leave while controlling labor costs by automating the enforcement of absence and leave policies

Minimize compliance risk by consistently applying absence and leave policies

Gain visibility into absence trends and take action to improve productivity

What could managing absenteeism mean to you?

Absenteeism is expensive. The costs can be split into direct costs (the wages
paid to unproductive, absent employees) and indirect costs (which can be further Calculation example:
sub-divided into the cost of replacement and the impact on productivity). Such a If supervisors spend 4.2 hours/week dealing
significant cost needs to be closely managed if it is to be controlled. with absences, absence can cost a typical organization

If managers have an incomplete picture of employee absence and of the staffing

210 person hours ($7,493) per manager/
supervisor each year.
requirements affected by those absences, they must suffer the inevitable
consequence of overstaffing and overpayment. That means that absence could cost nearly $75K for

Employees with supervisory responsibility spend an average of 4.2 hours per week
every 100 FTEs (an entire headcount of wasted time).11
dealing with absences, including obtaining replacements, adjusting workflow,
or providing training, which is equivalent to 210 hours, or 5.25 weeks per year,
per supervisor, for organizations that are open 50 weeks per year.10
 Workforce Challenge: Managing Employee Absence

With Kronos Workforce Ready you can:

Calculation example:
• Automatically generate a prioritized call list of qualified workers based on
Leveraging these capabilities, it is estimated that a typical
availability, seniority, skill set, and more so that you can fill shifts with the
manager/supervisor can reduce the amount of
right person at the right cost
time spent dealing with absenteeism by
• Gain real-time visibility into accurate availability and scheduling data to 50% or more.
ensure that the right replacement is found as quickly as possible
This results in over 105 person-hours ($3,747) in
• Effectively manage time-off requests with a configurable workflow for annual savings per manager/supervisor, with over $37K
requests/approval and automatic updates to employee attendance that in annual savings for every 100 FTEs.
reflect the accurate balance

• Easily confirm each employee’s eligibility for paid and unpaid leave based on
vacation, sick time, and other user-defined criteria Kronos Workforce Ready® is a cloud-based Human Capital Management
(HCM) solution that provides a full suite of seamlessly integrated applications
• Automatically notify managers when employees exceed established point for recruiting, onboarding, HR, time and attendance, scheduling, absence
thresholds management, payroll, and more. A single employee record and unified platform
• Automatically calculate and report on accrued time off based on employee allow for ease of use across all stages of the employee lifecycle – from pre-hire
performance/attendance points to retire.

To learn more about Kronos Workforce Ready or to get a price quote, contact your
Kronos representative, call +1 800 225 1561 or visit kronos.com/workforceready.
“W orkforce Ready’s attendance point system helps us monitor
absenteeism better than before.”
1
SMB Group, Cloud-Based Workforce Management Powers Midsized Organizations (December 2015), at 6.
2
SHRM, Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences in the U.S. (2014), at 2.
3
Ibid., at 2.
4
Mercer, Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences (June 2010), at 8.
— Vicki Bergendal, IT/Help Desk Coordinator 5
SHRM, Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences in the U.S. (2014), at 1.
Maple Leaf Cheesemakers 6
Ibid., at 2.
7
Ibid., at 3.
8
Mercer, Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences (June 2010), at 9.
9
SHRM, Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences in the U.S. (2014), at 3.
10
Ibid., at 3.
11
Ibid., at 2.

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