Absenteeism an abuse to Industries

The word absenteeism has become a topic of research, discussions and surveys in current scenario. The problem of absenteeism is common to all Industries whether it is involved in production, technical services, Public utility and other important sectors. That is merely due to because of education, Income, socio economic structure.

Manager who are responsible for production, have always been conscious about absenteeism as it is one of the most crucial factor involved in production.

Absenteeism: This is an act of being absent from workplace without prior information. That is basically seen in Level 4 employees in every industry.

The main cause of absenteeism:

·         Alcoholism

·         Frustration

·         Sudden contingencies

·         Fatigue

·         Low Morale

·         Poor Working Condition

·         Lack of Job Satisfaction

·         Poor leadership Style

·         Personal Problems

·         Poor Physical fitness

·         Workload

·         Boredom

Main occasion when Rate of Absenteeism tend to be increased:

·         After salary Distribution (Worker from Level 4)

·         During Festivals like (Holi, Deepawali, Rakshabandhan and other)

·         During Nationwide campaigning by Leaders

·         During strike in transportation sector

·         During Crop harvesting session

·         During the session of Marriages (As in India there are some specific months)

 

Formula to calculate Absenteeism:

Absenteeism: No of shift lost x 100 / No of employee planned

The factors relating to absenteeism are somehow not under control as most of the factor are depends on the external factors. But we can work on the factor which is under our control.

Some guideline to control absenteeism:

1.    Prepare effective absenteeism policy.

2.    Communicate effectively penalties and disciplinary action that can be taken against.

3.    Don’t forget human factor while preparing policies

4.    Listen them and council them

5.    Work on the outcomes of intra Organization research or report of grievance committee, Works committee

6.    Assist employees in planning their leaves (as everyone want to spend some of his time with family or on a tour good location).

7.    If situation with employee compels him to take leave, Grant him before he goes without permission.

However to control Absenteeism is a very expensive exercise as it involves all the disciplines together like: working on: Management Style, Organization development, Leadership Style, Aesthetics, and Philanthropy.

From studies it is recorded:

Among the cases of Absenteeism 80% takes it on ground of Medical sickness, in this % 60-70% were not really ill. “Sickness Leave mostly used in making absenteeism valid”. This is our social obligation also, to provide with the privilege of Sickness on production of certificate which may easily be obtained from any Inferior medical practitioner, employer don’t have any measure to evaluate validation of the certificate produced.

Why Sickness Leave? Sickness is the most powerful weapon available to the workmen as there can’t be any kind of recheck or verification for the same, In addition to this the workmen also gets some sympathy form senior.

Here is an interesting case which I could recall: one of employees from my company once absent for 15 days, when He returned we issued him show cause notice, he replied with copy lots of Medical reports. Two months later we came to know that he was in Shimla City and enjoying a tour with his wife.   

20 % of remaining are other cases among which only 5 to 10 % are genuine. If we talk about just above the level 4, Level 2,3 and other top level employees also make false statements regarding their absenteeism to validate their absence.

There is no way to control absenteeism except Workers participation in management, Work Management in small Teams, Teams Rotation, CMBO and the seniors also needs to be self disciplined so that they could exercise the things they want to be followed.