Employee absenteeism at work has remained one of the major factors that can hurt productivity deeply in any office. And for many decades or more, human resources offices and various businesses have researched so much in bids to develop models which yield productivity by driving the employee’s desire to contribute more. According to a study by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), the impact of employee absence can be felt (at least) in four ways which are all geared towards dwindling of the company’s revenue and productivity. These impacts include an increased workload, disruption of job roles for other employees, increased stress and hurting of morale or workforce. Others will include poor service delivery to clients and many more.

Some offices were able to curb employee absenteeism or drive productivity through strict working policies, incentives to employees, tying salaries to productivity, performance target policies, and many others. While most of the strict adoptable policies are relative to the type of office, below are some verified methods to reduce employee absenteeism at work, irrespective of the nature of your business.

Establish a clear attendance policy

Every employee is expected to uphold the rules and regulations enforced by the employing company upon employment. Establishing accessible attendance policies to all employees through handbooks before their first day at the office is one of the most effective ways to reduce absenteeism. SHRM report revealed that one-third of companies do not have attendance policies and this does not encourage attendance. Without policies guiding office attendance, employees would not only struggle to live up to the standard for efficient productivity, but supervisors will also struggle to implement punishments accountable for lax attendance.

Clear attendance policy will not only help them to understand their roles and targets at work, but it would also help to keep them organized, understand how to respond when they have emergencies and to stick with the company’s cultural values.

Attach generous incentives for perfect attendance

Irrespective of a strict attendance policy, loopholes are waiting to be exploited by the employees. To discourage these deficiencies, employers are encouraged to attach incentives to perfect attendance as a measure to encourage presence and competition for the incentives. Every worker wants a reward, and without appreciating those who are discouraging absenteeism at your workplace; it would be difficult to discourage those seeking to exploit the invisible weaknesses in your company’s attendance policy. As you consider adopting incentives for attendance, consider the following:

• Publicly celebrating employees with perfect attendance during special events involving CEO
• Offer bonuses such as additional paid time off to employees with perfect attendance
• Use attendance records as criteria for promotions

Incentives are also a means to pressurize those who have never made it to the list of employees with perfect attendance to work against looking like the worst employees.

Encourage standard working environment

While you are working hard to bring your employees to work every day and to make them remain at work, there is need to promote a standard working environment to entice their stay. There is no doubt that people try to stay away from environments which do not excite them. One major means of promoting employees presence is by having a well-defined expectation and purpose, frequent engagement during working hours and support for safe and healthy environment.

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