Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 2, 2015 14 FEATURES DISABILITY MANAGEMENT Using presenteeism to predict absenteeism Issues A tracking mechanism is key to knowing if there's a problem at an organization By Paula Allen and Luc Bourgeois T he fact that absenteeism is annually a multi-billion dollar drain on the Cana- dian economy is not lost on em- ployers. Ninety per cent recog- nize absenteeism is not only very costly, it negatively impacts pro- ductivity, according to the 2015 Morneau Shepell report The True Picture of Workplace Ab- senteeism. However, only one- half (52 per cent) of responding employers indicate absenteeism is a serious issue. is disconnect between employ- ers' recognition of the cost and productivity impact of absence and their view of the seriousness of the problem hatches a chicken- egg dilemma. Organizations are beginning to take absence track- ing more seriously: e number of those tracking increased from 36 per cent last year to 49 per cent this year, according to Morneau Shepell's 2014 and 2015 Com- pensation & Trends in Human Resources survey. That means, however, that more than one-half of employers do not track the cost of incidental absence — short periods of time off work — in their organization. ey may think such absence is purely a cost of doing business, they are already taking effective measures to manage absenteeism or absenteeism is not something they can control. However, because absence isn't tracked, they have no real under- standing of the magnitude of the impact of absenteeism on their or- ganization or whether any efforts are making a difference. If employers don't know what they don't know about the status of the absenteeism issue, they are even more in the dark about pre- senteeism — the time employees spend at work while not produc- tively engaged in work. Only one- third (32 per cent) see presentee- ism as a serious issue at their orga- nization, while 53 per cent of em- ployees think it's a major concern. And employees undoubtedly have the inside track: 81 per cent stated that, in the six months prior to completing the Workplace Ab- senteeism survey, they had gone into work when they were not able to perform as well as they would have liked or as well as they had in the past. The seemingly complacent attitude many employers have towards incidental absence man- agement and presenteeism has the potential to foster a culture of absence. Not only will absentee- ism and presenteeism continue to negatively affect an organiza- tion's bottom line, the magnitude of the impact may grow. at is an unfortunate outcome, given that the research establishes that some portion of both absenteeism and presenteeism is not only control- lable, it's predictable. Managing absence One of the most revealing data points to emerge from e True Picture of Workplace Absenteeism study is that slightly more than one-half (52 per cent) of inciden- tal absence is not due to illness. e research surveyed 1,005 employees, 100 employers and 104 physicians in late 2014 to gather input on absenteeism. One conclusion was that work-related factors play a role in predicting whether the type of incidental ab- sence is related to illness or non- illness reasons. Non-illness-related absence (not related to either a mental or physical health issue, but to a personal issue, practical issue or choice that is not related to ill- ness) is more likely to occur where workplace stress is reported by the employee, and where the em- ployer does not support mental wellness. In short, many employees take brief periods of time off work simply to de-stress, particularly in situations where there is no focus in the workplace on reduc- ing stress. ese findings suggest there could be a significant reduc- tion in absenteeism if employers paid more attention to creating a work environment that supports mental health. e presenteeism- absenteeism cycle e 81 per cent of employees who self-reported presenteeism were as likely to have had diminished productivity due to work issues or stress as they were to physical or mental illness. Again, if employers were to establish a work environ- ment that supports mental health, they could dramatically reduce presenteeism, along with non- illness-related incidental absence. In fact, the relationship be- tween presenteeism and absen- teeism may have a cyclical nature, with work stress leading to pre- senteeism, leading to more work stress, leading to a non-illness ab- sence, leading to additional work stress, leading to illness due to workplace stress, circling back to work stress. e longer work stress remains unaddressed in the organization, the more it will result in presen- teeism, leading to increased inci- dental absence, and perhaps even short- and long-term disability absence. Stopping the cycle When employers do not pay suf- ficient — or the right type of — attention to absence, they are vulnerable to worsening cost and productivity issues. Employers that have no absence tracking mechanism in place cannot deter- mine if or where there may be a concern. Such employers are also inadvertently sending a message to employees that absence is not important enough for the organi- zation to track. When employers rely primar- ily on physician notes to validate incidental absences, they ignore the fact employees typically visit a physician to get the note at the point when they are ready to return to work. As such, the physician may not have seen the employee while he was ill and the note itself might mask and validate a non-medical reason for absence. e insights provided by the study point to solutions, begin- ning with implementing an at- tendance reporting and tracking system. Tracking enables em- ployers to identify employees who need support in managing health, workplace or personal issues. It also helps to ensure early and timely intervention for employ- ees with longer-term absences leading to disability leave. Equally important, tracking determines whether absence management initiatives are having a positive impact. Tracking enables employers to identify employees who need support in managing health, workplace or personal issues. Credit: Mascha Tace (Shutterstock) SEND > pg. 16

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