Managing sick leave

A recent headline in the Sunday Times Careers section takes a stab at the cost of absenteeism to corporate South Africa. “Sick leave costs SA millions,” trumpets one headline… With a second announcing: “Worker absenteeism costs SA firms R7bn a year…” Of c

If you watched this week’s Special Assignment show on SABC 3 you would have caught a perfect example of ‘presenteeism’ in action. Produced by Jessica Pitchford the investigation centred on delivery at the Workmen’s Compensation offices. Special Assignment reports that when their cameras arrived at the offices “about ten staff members in the medical claim section were playing games on their computers, some were doing hair-dressing and others were wandering about.” Further in the report the show alleges that some staff members boasted of not working more than 3 hours a day. Surely this organisation is in serious need of a sick leave management programme!

Dangers of implementing absenteeism programmes

Schoonbee discussed many of the obstacles that had to be overcome when implementing a sick leave management policy at a company. The most common issue is that employees tend to react negatively to the idea of ‘sick’ police monitoring their every activity. Thus the key factor for success is to get buy-in from all stakeholders including employer and employee. Schoonbee urges companies not to make use of sick leave management just because they can.

The presentation included some interesting observations about our infatuation with absenteeism. In any given year an individual employee might spend 240 days at work and be allowed to take 10 days sick leave. By focusing only on these 10 days, management forgets about the unproductive employee. If that employee wastes just 10% of each working day due to ‘presenteeism’ the company is losing out on 24 days of productive time each year. A focus on absenteeism is thus often a grand misdirection. Instead companies should spend time focussing on the causes of absenteeism as it is quite possible the same factors are at the root of poor productivity too. “The underlying reasons for absence are often the very ones that affect productivity,” says Schoonbee

Schoonbee says that as much as 70% of absences from work are not ‘wellness’ issues. Instead they relate to a range of other workplaces stresses, including those caused by the employee/employer dynamic. He notes that the best way to tackle the problem is to treat the underlying causes. If the company provides a comfortable work environment it encourages a happy workforce. A happy workforce requires fewer sick days and is more productive – and staff turnover is reduced too.

The final evolution

Failing to address the causes of absenteeism and low productivity will lead to long-term downward slide. Over time, productivity decreases – then absenteeism increase – before full disability ensues. Businesses should implement sick leave management programmes to manage the causes of absenteeism and ensure the curve flattens over time.

Editor’s thoughts:
Sick leave management probably forms part of the integrated benefits packages employed at many large private sector companies. Do you have experience of such a programme – and in your view does it improve productivity? Send your comments to gareth@fanews.co.za, or respond below.