Innovative Strategies for Reducing Absenteeism

Employee absenteeism is a big drain on your company's bottom line.  The CDC reports that absenteeism costs the U.S. employers about $225.8 billion annually or about $1,685 per employee.  Employers must hire replacements for employees who are absent or terminated.  Employee absenteeism also negatively affects morale and productivity. Your conscientious employees often feel burdened by the extra work they have to do when someone is absent.  High employee absenteeism is often a sign of a low performing manager. It can also be a sign that the work environment needs some changes. Large amounts of time and money can be saved by understanding the root causes of absenteeism in your company. 

What is the annual cost of unexcused absenteeism? 

Estimated Cost of Absenteeism = Total # unexcused absence days per year X Average employee compensation cost per day + replacement or overtime costs for the unexcused absences.

 Absenteeism Rate = Number of unexcused absence days ÷ (Total employees x Total Work days) x 100%

 

Common Reasons for Absenteeism

 

Illness (I1)	Injury (I2)
Disengagement (D1)	Low Workplace Morale (LWM)
Child Care Issues (CCI)	Stress / Burnout (SB)
Lack of Flexibility (LOF)	Depression (D2)
Job Hunting (JH)	Manager Conflicts  (MC)
Bullying (B)	Harassment (H)
Elder Care Issues (ECI)	Anxiety (A)

Root Cause Analysis of Absenteeism

Some problems just keep showing up month after month and absenteeism is one of them.  In a root cause analysis we need to ask the right questions first.  The first question should not be: What is the solution? It should be: Why does this keep happening?  We need to identify the germ before we can solve the disease.  If we don’t know what the origins of the problem are, how can we stop it from recurring in the future?

We suggest using a simple attendance spreadsheet to get to the root causes of absenteeism in your workforce.  This tracking is very simple to implement.  It tracks each employee’s unexcused absences and the reason for the occurrence as provided by the employee. Once the frequencies are determined for each identified cause, the HR Manager can deploy innovative solutions to the root causes.

 

Employee Name	January, 2021	February, 2021	March, 2021
John Y.	I1, D2		LOF
Sarah M.		CCI, CCI	CCI
Joni W.		MC, D	MC, A
Sam J.	I2

Illness (I1)	Injury (I2)
Disengagement (D1)	Low Workplace Morale (LWM)
Child Care Issues (CCI)	Stress / Burnout (SB)
Lack of Flexibility (LOF)	Depression (D2)
Job Hunting (JH)	Manager Conflicts  (MC)
Bullying (B)	Harassment (H)
Elder Care Issues (ECI)	Anxiety (A)

 

Attendance Policy Template

Objective

The purpose of this policy is to set forth [Company Name]'s policy and procedures for handling employee absences and tardiness to promote the efficient operation of the company and minimize unscheduled absences. 

Policy

Punctual and regular attendance is an essential responsibility of each employee at [Company Name]. Employees are expected to report to work as scheduled, on time and prepared to start working. Employees also are expected to remain at work for their entire work schedule. Late arrival, early departure or other absences from scheduled hours are disruptive and must be avoided.  This policy does not apply to absences covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or leave provided as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These exceptions are described in separate policies.

Absence

"Absence" is defined as the failure of an employee to report for work when he or she is scheduled to work. The two types of absences are defined below:

• Excused absence occurs when all the following conditions are met:

·         The employee provides to his or her supervisor sufficient notice at least 48 hours in advance of the absence.

·         The absence request is approved in advance by the employee's supervisor.

·         The employee has sufficient accrued paid time off (PTO) to cover the absence.

• Unexcused absence occurs when any of the above conditions are not met. If it is necessary for an employee to be absent or late for work because of an illness or an emergency, the employee must notify his or her supervisor no later than the employee's scheduled starting time on that same day. If the employee is unable to call, he or she must have someone make the call.

An unexcused absence counts as one occurrence for the purposes of discipline under this policy. Employees with three or more consecutive days of excused absences because of illness or injury must give [Company Name] proof of physician's care and a fitness for duty release prior to returning to work. Employees must take earned PTO for every absence unless otherwise allowed by company policy (e.g., leave of absence, bereavement, jury duty).

Tardiness and Early Departures

Employees are expected to report to work and return from scheduled breaks on time. If employees cannot report to work as scheduled, they must notify their supervisor no later than their regular starting time. This notification does not excuse the tardiness but simply notifies the supervisor that a schedule change may be necessary. Employees who must leave work before the end of their scheduled shift must notify a supervisor immediately.  Tardiness and early departures are each one-half an occurrence for the purpose of discipline under this policy.

Disciplinary Action

Excessive absenteeism is defined as two or more occurrences of unexcused absence in a 30-day period and will result in disciplinary action. Eight occurrences of unexcused absence in a 12-month period are considered grounds for termination.

Job Abandonment

Any employee who fails to report to work for a period of three days or more without notifying his or her supervisor will be considered to have abandoned the job and voluntarily terminated the employment relationship. 

When managers reduce absenteeism problems teams and individual employees thrive. But when they don’t, organizations and people suffer. If your managers are not analyzing absenteeism, they are likely to be a low performing manager.  You can assess the competencies of your current managers by using an assessment tool like the CheckPoint 360 Survey.  This assessment identifies managers who can drive results and profits by solving problems.  Contact us to learn more. 

Customer Service Talent Assessment

In today’s business world, it can be difficult to identify candidates with the right behavioral characteristics for your customer service jobs. Customer Service Talent Assessments can be used to measure how well a person fits a specific customer service job in your organization. 

What is Customer Service Work?

Based on O*NET information, the core activities of customer service workers include:  Discussing goods or services information with customers.  Responding to customer problems or complaints.  Maintaining financial or account records.  Referring customers to other appropriate departments or persons.   Calculating costs of goods or services.

Competencies Required for Success in Customer Service Jobs

Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Service Orientation — Actively looking for ways to help people.

Reading Comprehension — Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Talent Assessment Strategy Canada

An effective Customer Service Talent Assessment needs to evaluate many of the following qualities:

Time Management — Customers want their questions answered quickly and their problem resolved in a timely manner.

Positive Attitude — When customers are treated with respect, courtesy and professionalism they are most receptive to having a satisfactory outcome.

Empathy — Having empathy regarding the customer’s situation will usually calm down even the most angry customer.

Ownership — Taking responsibility for the situation. Even if you cannot fix things yourself, make sure the customer doesn’t get bounced around trying to find the right person to help them.

Active Listening — Listen first, act second. A customer needs to feel that you have heard what their situation is.  When they feel you understand, they will also feel that you can provide the correct solution.

Dependability — When you say you are going to do something, do it. Let the customer know what is being done on their behalf.

Follow-up — Customers remember when someone follows up to make sure everything is OK. Many organizations miss this opportunity to turn customers into dedicated fans!

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer. Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%. The talent assessment strategy you use to hire and retain high-performing customer service talent is critical to your long-term success. Without the right service reps in place, your company will struggle to retain customers.  

Delving Deep into Talent Selection Assessments

In the human resource industry, talent selection assessments are a hot topic. Talent selection assessments help employers identify the top candidates for their open position. In today’s employment landscape, talent assessments are recognized as a vital component of a company’s success and performance. Talent selection assessments provide organizations with an opportunity to identify and hire the candidate with the best job fit, organization fit and team fit.

Why should Employers Conduct Talent Selection Assessments?

Talent selection assessments are widely known as employment screening tests or pre-employment assessments. These assessments are generally conducted to evaluate the job fit of the candidate for a specific position.  Unlike interviews, where the candidates are often telling hiring managers what they want to hear, talent assessments are data driven and objective. Talent assessments provide empirical evidence (i.e. information acquired by observation in the form of recorded data that can be the subject of scientific analysis). 

Selection Decisions are based on all of the Information Collected on a candidate

Selection decisions are based on the following types of information collected from candidates: Application forms, Resumes, Cognitive ability tests, Job Knowledge tests, Personality tests, Biographical data inventories, Integrity tests, Structured interviews, Physical fitness tests, Situational judgment tests, Work Samples, Assessment Centers, and Physical ability tests.  Any assessments used must be able to show job relatedness.

What Can you Expect in a Talent Selection Assessment?

Though each talent assessment is unique, there are some common things that you can expect from online talent assessments:

➔   Verifications of specific job skills required

➔   Verbal reasoning and problem-solving questions

➔   Numerical reasoning and problem-solving questions

➔   Questions about motivations and passions

➔   Questions about Personality Traits or Behavioral Traits

➔   Situational Problem-solving scenarios

➔   Technical Knowledge questions

➔   Questions about honesty, trustworthiness, and dependability

Are Talent Selection Assessments a Pass/Fail Process?

Talent Selection decisions need to be based on all of the information collected on candidates,

not only a single assessment score.  The talent selection decision should be based on the Overall Job Fit, Organization Fit and Team Fit.

The Five Steps of the Talent Selection Process are:

●     Gathering pre-qualifying information (e.g. application, resume, pre-qualifying questionnaire etc.)

●     Conducting Talent Assessments (e.g. cognitive ability, personality, motivations, integrity etc.)

●     Conducting Structured Interviews (e.g. Knowledge, skills, abilities, job fit etc.)

●     Conducting Background Checks and Reference Checks

●     Making the Final Selection Decision and the Job Offer

We hope that our post has given you a brief overview of talent assessment processes and strategies. So, if you choose to conduct talent assessments, you will have a good idea of the different strategies available to you.  If you have questions or would like more discussion about your talent assessment strategy, you can contact Hire Smart for further assistance.

Candidate Assessment Strategy USA is Linked to Growth in Company Performance

Planning your candidate evaluation strategy early in the hiring process helps set the stage for attracting quality candidates.  All assessments and measurements used for evaluating candidates must be linked to the job requirements. A talent assessment strategy can then be developed based on the competencies that are critical to successful performance on the job.  Assessing the candidate’s potential for success in the position is what we call Job Fit. Talent Selection Assessments are a crucial consideration in this regard. Take a quick look at Candidate Assessment Strategy USA, and you will understand that talent selection assessments will help you reduce turnover, decrease hiring costs, reduce interviewing time, and it will increase your quality of hire.  If you choose the right talent assessments you will be on your way to building an agile, high performance workforce. The reason is that you will be able to identify the high potential candidates who showcase the competencies needed to become a high performer. You will be able to identify the job fit, manager fit and team fit that are critical to high performance.

Potential benefits to gain from assessment strategies

●     Aptitude assessments will help determine if the candidate has the ability to do the job.  The more complex the job, the higher the level of cognitive ability needed to perform the work.  If they don’t have the ability to solve complex problems they will very likely fail in the job.  Another way of looking at cognitive ability is learning speed. How long does it take a person to learn a new skill or competency.

●Personality assessments help employers identify candidates whose behavioral traits are well suited for a specific position. Personality assessments are designed to reveal particular aspects of a candidate's personality in order to predict the likelihood that he or she will excel in a specific position.  Examples of personality measures include: willingness to work in teams, willingness to comply with rules and regulations, ability to lead others, ability to cope with stress and pressure, etc.

●     Motivation assessments can identify the attitudes and passions that your high performers have in common.   Passion generates energy and enthusiasm and it kicks a person into high gear. Highly self-motivated candidates have a high degree of interest and passion for the work demands and task requirements of the job. Just because someone is good at doing something doesn’t mean they love to do it.  Achievement levels are influenced by a person’s optimism or pessimism attitudes. 

If you are looking for help in identifying a candidate assessment strategy USA. check out https://www.hiresmart.com/.   You will find descriptions of a variety of proven talent assessments that measure aptitudes, personality and motivations.