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CONNECTING THE DOTS:
Using Integrated Data to Control Absence and Improve Productivity
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
By now, the message to executives is clear: employee absence is enormously expensive. Expensive on the order of $300 billion per year, by some estimates.
And the costs of absence transcend the payment of overtime or the cost of hiring replacement workers. They go to the heart of the business: the company’s ability to produce quality goods and services and satisfy its customers.
There is no shortage of aggregate data to describe the scope of the problem. For an employer with 10,000 employees, the annual direct costs of absence – lost productivity, high-cost replacement workers, and inefficient overstaffing – are estimated at more than $35 million. Coupled with indirect costs – increased turnover, reduced quality, administrative inefficiency, and poorer overall employee health – the direct costs are estimated to easily double or triple.
Even with that information, though, many firms are still not clear about their own total costs of absence, its impact on their productivity and morale, and how they can effectively manage those costs.
Clearly, some mix of scheduled and unscheduled employee absence is both expected and acceptable. But the number and variation of absence types and programs make it difficult to discern the expected and acceptable from the unscheduled and wasteful.
And to make matters worse, employers largely lack the integrated absence data they need to understand their unique absence experience, to calculate actual costs, and to measure whether their absence management programs are working.
This white paper offers insight into two components of a strategic solution to managing employee absence: an approach built on solid software tools and deep integrated analysis.
Using an integrated model, employers can access absence data of any type, in real time, to manage absence at the supervisor level, where solutions are most likely to take hold. They can ensure consistent application of policies and best practices across a distributed organization. And they can mine their data to identify trends, to understand the relationships between absence types, and to evaluate program performance.
UPCOMING OCI TRADE SHOWS AND EVENTS:
RIMS 2009
April 19 - 23
Orlando
PRIMA 2009
May 31 - June 3
Dallas
SHRM 2009
June 28 - July 1
New Orleans