What is workplace absenteeism?
Workplace absenteeism is defined as when employees are regularly skipping work without an apparent reason. However, that may be because they are not enjoying their job which could be due to experiencing bullying, harassment & discrimination or feeling their workplace’s culture is toxic and they feel too afraid to speak up about and report it. For some, instead of simply not showing up, they may call in sick or take prolonged sick leave. Either way, the causes of workplace absenteeism – specifically the ones named above – must be addressed if organisations want to reduce it.
Workplace absenteeism vs. presenteeism
Presenteeism is when employees show up to work without being productive and this is often because of ill health or a problematic workplace culture where they feel they must still attend. While the causes can be similar to workplace absenteeism, presenteeism finds employees perhaps only attending work because they feel they cannot take time off but will still be less engaged and productive.
In both cases, a reduction of present employees (absenteeism) and in productivity (presenteeism), will be a concern to employers who may call them in to get to the root of the problem or start disciplinary action. However, the latter shouldn’t happen if the root of the problem is because of the organisation’s culture or incidents of bullying, discrimination or harassment. But if the employees are hesitant to talk about it, especially face-to-face, how will employers ever know?
The impact of workplace absenteeism and presenteeism
According to our research on how toxic workplace culture is affecting employees and businesses, 61% of people we asked have had to take a long-term leave of absence due to workplace bullying or harassment, and 71% say they’ve called in sick due to not wanting to see somebody they have a negative relationship with at work. Many probably did not disclose to their employer the true reason for those absences, leaving them unaware of what is really going on.
In 2020 days off due to mental health rose by 10%, while 36% of employees said their mental health affects their productivity on a weekly basis, according to recent research from Westfield Health. The same research also revealed employee absenteeism cost UK businesses a staggering £14 billion in 2020. While charity, Centre for Mental Health, calculated that presenteeism from mental ill health alone is costing the UK economy £15.1 billion per year.
However, Deloitte and mental health charity, Mind, report the UK’s presenteeism problem is even greater, costing UK employers between £26 billion and £29 billion annually through lost productivity. Whatever way you look at it, workplace absenteeism and presenteeism are clearly two major problems facing businesses today.
All of this further solidifies just how widespread the financial impact of negative workplace culture is. From appealing to investors and a business’ profitability to the cost of recruitment and legal action, there is only one way that businesses can avoid these added costs and that’s by looking after their people.
Analysis from Deloitte reveals just how important looking after employee mental health is for a business’s bottom line and data shows that, on average, for every £1 spent on supporting employee’s mental health, employers get £5 back on their investment in reduced presenteeism, absenteeism and staff turnover.
Tackling absenteeism with the power of anonymous reporting
Our findings show that 2 in 5 people have experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment at work, but only 35% have reported it before, with a multitude of reasons why they haven’t, including fear of repercussions, fear of dismissal, fear of not being believed, or lack of trust that anything will be done about it. But we also found that 62% said they would be much more likely to report incidents if they could do so anonymously. This makes what Culture Shift offers a perfect place for them to disclose incidents with as much information as they want so their employers can track trends such as discrimination against certain groups, harassment offences made by certain people, lack of understanding regarding certain ED&I issues, and see if this correlates with the absenteeism or presenteeism they are seeing.
For end users, the power is completely in their hands, with the option to remain anonymous or name themselves or the perpetrator(s), and what they want their organisation to do with the information; they may simply want to tell someone and not necessarily make formal complaints or have an investigation take place.
By simply offering an anonymous reporting route and utilising it properly when you get reports through, this can empower employees to come forward, building trust and trying to resolve issues head on so that they don’t feel the need to stay away from work altogether or feel they have to come in and be less productive when they do.
The financial costs and reputational risk of not addressing the causes of staff absenteeism and presenteeism and taking measures to prevent those causes are not quick fixes, but we can certainly help you fix them. Read here for more information on how our anonymous reporting system works and what it could do for your organisation.
If you want to learn more about the benefits and power of implementing an anonymous reporting system like Culture Shift’s, which has been launched in more than 90 universities, colleges and public and private workplaces already and gives 1.9 million people access to a safe and secure way of speaking up. Get in touch with our team today.
