Give Employees an Alternative to Sick Time

Businesses lose millions of dollars each year due to unscheduled absenteeism. The most-cited reason for last-minute absences is family issues, followed by personal illness, personal needs, stress, and an entitlement mentality.

When an employee is unexpectedly absent, you have to pay direct costs (the salary or wages paid to absent employees) and indirect costs (overtime pay for other employees, hiring temporary workers, and supervisory time spent rearranging work schedules).

The problem is that traditional sick-leave plans do not address the issues that drive employee absenteeism.

The solution is to figure out why your employees are taking unscheduled absences, then develop time-off programs that truly fit the needs of both your workers and your company.

An effective absence-control program is a paid time off (PTO) system, which provides employees with a “bank” of hours to be used for various purposes instead of traditional separate accounts for sick, vacation, and personal time.

If you decide to implement a PTO system, it's critical that employees understand you are not taking away their sick time or vacation time, but that you are giving them the same amount of paid time off and adding increased flexibility and privacy to the program.

Other programs that have proven effective in small businesses include job sharing, flexible scheduling, allowing leave for children's school functions, emergency child care, and a compressed work week.

How are you handling employee absenteeism in your organization? Share your thoughts on what works or doesn't work.

Need help effectively communicating a change in your programs to your workforce? Contact me.