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Employee absenteeism cost companies millions of dollars every year in
lost productivity and/or increased overtime costs, but ask a manager to quantify the problem-how many days are missed, who misses them, when the
absences occur most frequently and it is likely you won't get any definite answers. The vast majority of companies don't keep tabs on employee
attendance, and that in itself is part of the problem, says Joel Levy, of Coopers & Lybrand in New York City. " You can't solve your Friday
problem, unless you know you have a Friday problem."
Education computer Corp. knew it had a problem, and chose to address
it by making attendance a formal part of its employee-appraisal system. The manufacturer of training simulators, headquartered in Strafford,
Pa., tracks its employees by the week, then provides supervisors with detailed attendance reports every six months. Employees who don't
regularly come to work risk losing pay hikes, or, if unexcused absences aren't eliminated, their jobs.
The Liebert Corp., a manufacturer of environmental control systems for
data-processing installations in Columbus, Ohio, takes a different approach, using rewards as the motivation. The company gives hourly employees
three shares of company stock for each year of perfect attendance and two free movie tickets for each unblemished quarter.
Ugly Duckling Rent-A-Car System, Inc., headquartered in Tucson, checks
applicants' past attendance records as part of the reference-checking process. As president Thomas S. Duck Sr. says, "The best way to solve an
absenteeism problem is not to have any absenteeism to begin with." |
