Absenteeism
Absenteeism is the amount of time employees are having off work
Number of staff absent (on one day) x100 / total number of staff
Helps to measure the morale and motivation of the workforce
If this is high it will cost the business money and decrease their profits
The causes of absenteeism may include:
- serious accidents and illness
- low morale
- poor working conditions
- boredom on the job
- lack of job satisfaction
- Inadequate leadership and poor supervision
- Personal problems (financial, marital, substance abuse, child care etc.)
- poor physical fitness
- transportation problems
- the existence of income protection plans (collective agreement )
- Benefits which continue income during periods of illness or accident.)
- stress
- workload
- employee discontent with the work environment
Most if not all of these causes can be prevented by taking a positive approach to things. By showing the employees that you care, you can help lower absenteeism in the work place.
To reduce absenteeism:
- introducing more flexible working practices
- ensuring that jobs are interesting and challenging
- improving working conditions and thus reducing dissatisfaction
- improving relations between employers and employees
- introducing attendance bonuses as an incentive to attend regularly
Health and Safety
Health and safety = Number of working days left per year due to health and safety x 100 / total number of possible working days
This is a measure of safety Need to ensure this stays as low as possible
Labour Productivity
Labour productivity looks at how much work each worker does (output)
Labour productivity = output per period / number of employees at work
- Need to remember that this can also be influenced by other factors such as efficiency of capital that is being used.
- This can be used as a basis for performance related pay
- Labour productivity may be difficult to calculate for some businesses
Labour productivity may be increased by:
- recruiting suitably skilled and trained employees
- providing training to enhance skills and attitudes of existing employees
- providing pay and non-financial benefits that improve motivation
- improving working practices, technology and capital equipment
Labour Turnover
Labour turnover is how many people are leaving each year
Turnover = Number of staff leaving per year x 100 / average number of staff
Causes of labour turnover
- ineffective leadership and management techniques
- poor communications
- wages and salaries that are lower than those being paid by firms offering comparable jobs in the area
- poor selection procedures that tend to appoint the wrong people to the wrong jobs
- boring and unchallenging jobs that lack career and developmental opportunities
- poor working conditions and unpopular working practices
- low morale and motivation as a result of the above issues
Problems with a high labour turnover
- high recruitment and selection costs to replace staff who leave
- high induction and training costs
- reduced productivity due to the disruption caused by skilled staff leaving
- low morale among existing workers due to constantly changing staff
How to reduce labour turnover
- monitoring and benchmarking
- exit interviews
- recruitment and selection
- induction and training
- reducing turnover of long-term workers
