Absenteeism and disability - a growing risk to business

The South African economy loses billions per annum as a result of absenteeism and lower productivity related to illness and disability. Is your business showing the signs?

By Werner Odendaal
Momentum – Minute with Momentum

High absenteeism is detrimental to business, lowering productivity, escalating costs and hampering timeous service delivery. Momentum Employee Benefits' claims data also reveals a worrying new trend that companies are losing skilled staff to disability occurrences at an even younger age due to stress-related causes. This is a risk which could be mitigated through proper health management strategies.
   
While some blue chip companies have strategies to keep employees healthy, an overwhelming proportion of small and medium companies do not. The SMME sector, which employs some 60 percent of the country’s workforce, is clearly at high risk. It is therefore imperative that small to medium size enterprises identify risk factors indicating a possible future spike in absenteeism and disability claims.

After analysing the claims data, Momentum Corporate Consultants has identified the indicators of increased absenteeism as a precursor to subsequent disability, and that business owners and managers would be well advised to pay special attention to:

• Change in the organisational structure. The lingering concern and confusion resulting from retrenchments and mergers may cause stress leading to burnout and possibly more serious psychiatric and/or physical medical conditions.

• An increase in job or production demands. Employees experiencing an increase in production demand may experience increased levels of stress leading to burnout and possibly a more serious medical condition necessitating a disability claim.

• An increase in the sick absenteeism rate due to minor ailments. This trend may be an indication of stress and burnout as a precursor to more serious medical conditions necessitating disability claims.

• Presenteeism is as much a problem as absenteeism. Presenteeism is the act of attending work while suffering from a medical condition with the potential to hamper productivity. Often, by the time the problem becomes obvious, the employee’s medical condition has deteriorated to the extent that a disability claim is inevitable, whereas it may have been prevented by early intervention.

• An increase in disability claims specifically due to psychiatric or cardiovascular conditions. This may be an indication of an environment where stress and burnout is prevalent and warrants further investigation.
• A high staff turnover, especially in managerial positions. Uncertainty relating to the future of the company, perhaps resulting from poor communication, will contribute to the stress and burnout experienced amongst employees.

Being mindful of these indicators identified above, and in an attempt to prevent an increase in the sick absenteeism rate and possible future disability claims, Momentum Corporate Consultants has identified possible strategies to minimise stress and burnout:

• Employee skills training. Time management training, for example, and prioritising one’s work is a valuable stress and burnout prevention tool.

• Coping mechanism training. Stress management and emotional intelligence training assist in preventing and managing stress and burnout before it develops into a serious medical condition.
• Wellness initiatives. Counselling, health and wellness education are fundamental aspects of employee wellbeing. Wellness initiatives contribute to the optimal management of diseases directly related to sick absenteeism and disability claims.

• Effective communication. Especially during times of organizational change, effective communication goes a long way towards alleviating insecurity, stress and any resultant psychiatric conditions.

• Case Management. Early intervention and optimal management of employees at risk of disability is extremely important. Vocational rehabilitation, where feasible, is also available in the industry as a value added service on certain Group Income Replacement Disability Benefits. It assists in speedy return to work, retaining an employee in the workplace and improving productivity of an employee who experienced a medical or psychiatric condition.

Employee absenteeism has far reaching effects. Not only is it costing South African companies between R12 and R20 billion a year, it also has a profound negative impact on an organisation’s ability to deliver high-quality products and services in line with customer expectations. Moreover, absenteeism has an intense effect on the individuals constituting the workforce in the SMME sector of our economy which cannot always be measured in monetary value. What is the real cost to the individual and their families and what is the real cost to your company?

Comments

  1. Yeah, this is fact that risk is growing very fast there for every kind of business. I think these details are might be helpful to every businessman. I want to thank you for sharing these important things with us.

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    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your kind words. I will continue to share and hope you keep finding value from my blog.

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