Absenteeism in Indian industries

Absenteeism in Indian industries is not a new phenomenon. It is the manifestation of a decision by employees not to present themselves at their place of work, at a time when it is planned by the management that they should be in attendance.

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Absenteeism is becoming a critical issue these days which is affecting the company productivity. Something has to be done to curb all this so that the company is nor hit by this phenomenon. In a manufacturing company the workers are required to carry on the normal production cycle. If anyhow the workers do not reach work it costs the company a lot. This problem of absenteeism can drag a company in to losses

Frequent absence from the workplace may be indicative of poor morale or of sick building syndrome. However, many employers have implemented absence policies which make no distinction between absences for genuine illness and absence for inappropriate reasons.

One of these policies is the calculation of the Bradford factor, which only takes the total number and frequency of absences into account, not the kind of absence. As a result, many employees feel obliged to come to work while ill, and transmit communicable diseases to their co-workers.

This leads to even greater absenteeism and reduced productivity among other workers who try to work while ill. Work forces often do excuse absenteeism caused by medical reasons if the worker supplies a doctor's note or other form of documentation. Sometimes, however, in the workforce, people choose not to show up for work and do not call in advance, which most businesses f`ind to be unprofessional and inconsiderate.

Since absenteeism is a major barometer of employee morale, absenteeism above 5% per week is very serious (3% is the standard goal of industry). Left unchecked, high absenteeism usually develops into very serious business problems including morale issues and high turnover.

To reduce absenteeism, we should first check the percentage of employee absenteeism by supervisor. Usually absenteeism is localized to one or two supervisors. If you find the absenteeism equal throughout your factory then look to other things for the solution. If it is localized then the answer is obvious – under-trained supervisors. While looking at the absenteeism figures we should note if any excessive portion is caused by new employees. If it is, you might need to update your hiring procedure to ensure you only hire dependable people. Next we need to look at absenteeism a little more closely, in terms of the principal reason given for it – sickness.

Is any part of this type of absenteeism avoidable?

Well whatever be the reason we have to curb it. The Human Resource department is the one which has to take care that absenteeism is in control. It has to differentiate between the genuine reasons and fake ones to ensure that the organization’s productivity and profit is not affected.

Besides this, every organization has to accept that from time to time people will become ill and will require sufficient time off to recover, this is not disputed. At the same time, our aim is to encourage companies to ensure that they have a policy in place that promotes an ‘‘attendance culture’’ in order to minimize the amount of avoidable absence experienced. Research has shown that in the vast majority of cases closer management of absence is the primary driver in successfully decreasing both short and long-term absence levels