How much is absence costing your business?

According to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), unplanned absence costs UK businesses £29 billion a year. For private sector companies, this equates to £522 per employee on average, while it costs public sector organisations £835 per employee. This is undoubtedly significant in itself, but there’s more that businesses should consider than just the financial impact of team members missing work. Let’s take a closer look at what staff absenteeism really means.

A knock-on effect for your customers

It’s not always possible to arrange cover for missing team members, especially when their absence is unexpected. A shortage of labour can leave customers or clients without adequate service provision, particularly when it comes to public or client-facing roles. Sometimes, you may have no choice but to postpone the delivery of services due to staff absence, which can easily result in customer dissatisfaction, and even a loss of business. These days, consumers are spoiled for choice in most commercial areas, so it needn’t take much to send even usually loyal customers in the direction of your competitors.

More pressure on the rest of the team

Absenteeism can often mean that the rest of your team have to pick up the slack, covering an extra workload as well as carrying out their own duties. Potentially disgruntled staff rarely do their best work, and those trying to deliver the work of two can find their time and concentration levels too poorly impacted to do either to their full ability. On top of the productivity hit, a missing member can also mean more overtime amongst your remaining team, costing your business in wages and staff morale. Having to ask your staff to cover for a missing colleague can even result in further unplanned absence, especially if team members end up feeling overworked and/or undervalued.

Time spent on administrative work

Like many aspects of human resource management, staff absence must be properly logged. While this may not appear much of an outlay on the surface, it doesn’t take much for this time to rack up – after all, the absenteeism stats speak for themselves. Ultimately, being drawn away from their primary focus to process staff absenteeism leaves your team members with less time to do what it is they do best.

Sourcing and paying for replacement employees

Being a staff member down over an extended period can lead you to need extra support in the form of a temporary replacement employee. This kind of role is expensive and comes on top of the wages your business may already be paying to your absentee. What’s more, your managers may have to spend time training your replacement before they can properly get started, upping your overheads still further.

Minimise the effects of absenteeism with time and attendance optimisation

Staff absence can take a heavy toll on any business, but it doesn’t have to. The ability to track time and attendance enables you to identify patterns of behaviour, potential pressure points and other factors that may be contributing to levels of unplanned absenteeism within your organisation. Backed up by real-time data, an unobtrusive and intuitive time and attendance solution can help you reduce the impact of missing staff members, while also automating your workforce management processes. Find out more about what our time and attendance hardware can help you achieve