Handling Excessive Absences

Since absenteeism costs you money, you should try to cut down on unnecessary absenteeism without violating any federal or state employment laws or causing morale problems. In order to do so, you must determine what the main causes of your company's particular absenteeism problems are. Only then can you try to address them in a constructive way.

The most common reasons for employee absences are:

• illnesses or injury
• personal or attitude problems
• reasons relating to the employment situation
• reasons related to general community requirements or social problems
• weather and transportation
• no pressure to show up for work

Make sure you're not sending the wrong messages. If you suspect that one or more of these reasons may be the cause of an excessive absence problem in your business, determine whether they could be reduced by effective motivation.

If ABC Company allows employees to take 10 days per year as "sick days," some of ABC's employees may feel entitled to those days and take them even if they are not actually sick.

Make sure employees know that attendance is important, valued, and rewarded. One of the best ways to control absenteeism is to create an atmosphere where good attendance is valued and poor attendance is dealt with accordingly. This can be done through reward and discipline programs.