Absenteeism occurs in every company. We speak of absenteeism when employees are not at their usual primary workplace, but instead do their work elsewhere or are absent for other reasons and cannot complete their work. Absences should be structured, as every absence can have an impact on productivity in the company. This prevents bottlenecks and compensates for absences. There are certain measures within absence management for this purpose.
Record and structure absences
Absence management is important, but should not be an overly time-consuming process. After all, the aim of absence management is to compensate for the time that can be lost due to absences. Absences include all forms of absence. This includes vacation days, training and, of course, sick days. Structuring absences is important because it allows a plan to be drawn up on how to compensate for these absences. However, analysis is also an integral part of absence management, as absences should be avoided wherever possible or the company’s planning should be optimized accordingly. It is therefore important to first analyze what causes absences. If there are many absences due to sick days or special leave, these are external factors that can hardly be influenced. However, it may then make sense to scrutinize your own working time model and working conditions. However, if the causes are increasingly internal processes such as further training, planning should be adjusted accordingly. It can always be a good step to talk to your own employees and use this information to optimize absence management. An important factor within absence management is the absence rate.
Calculate the absenteeism rate
The absenteeism rate is a key figure. It provides information on how much actual working time is lost due to absences. This is calculated over a specific period of time. The absenteeism rate in a company should be kept as low as possible. However, there are many influencing factors. The following formula can be used to calculate the absence rate: Absenteeism rate = absences / planned working time x 100 The result is a percentage figure that should be as low as possible. The absence rate can be calculated over different time periods. For example, it makes sense to calculate it for one month.
Examples of the absenteeism rate
You run a company with two full-time employees. The target working hours per employee are 160 hours per month. This means a total of 320 hours. One employee was sick for three days in the meantime. This means that 24 working hours have to be calculated as absence. The calculation of the absence rate then looks like this: Absence rate = 24 / 320 x 100 = 7.5 The absence rate is therefore 7.5 percent. Of course, the issue becomes more complex when the company grows and has more employees. Then, for example, it can also be useful to calculate the absence rate for a specific department for a more precise analysis. This can also be done using the formula already described. However, a more complex formula can also be used. Namely this one: Absence rate = (number of absent employees x days absent x hours worked per day) / (employees in the department x monthly working days x hours worked per day) x 100 Assume you have five employees in one department of your company. They work full-time, i.e. 8 hours a day. The month had 20 working days. Two of the five employees were absent during the month. One for three days due to illness, the other for a week, i.e. five days on vacation. That makes eight days of absence. The calculation looks like this: Absentee rate = (2 x 8 x 8) / (5 x 20 x 8) x 100 = 128 / 800 x 100 = 16 The absentee rate is therefore 16 percent. There is no general answer as to when an absenteeism rate is too high. Lower is always better, but in the end it depends on how well you and your company can compensate for the absences.
Conclusion
Absence management is an important process in companies with employees. The absence rate provides information on how much working time is lost due to absences. Analyzing the causes of absenteeism helps to optimize processes or change plans.
