Employee empowerment in the workplace is very important to improve productivity and performance among employees.

As working environments are getting more competitive, employers have been looking for ways to reduce employee absenteeism. One of the most effective ways to do this is by encouraging employee empowerment.

Employees who feel empowered will be able to work better than those who don’t. This means that they will be able to achieve higher levels of productivity and performance.

Inversely, if your employees aren’t empowered, it will negatively affect their productivity and performance.

This would also discourage them from taking the initiative and making decisions on their own, let alone coming to work, also known as absenteeism.

What is Absenteeism?

Employee absenteeism is frequent absences from coming work. These absences are usually classified as chronic absences that exclude authorized leaves or paid time off.

There are many reasons why people take off from work too often, which will be explained in the following section.

When you don’t allow your employees to make decisions about their jobs, they will feel undervalued and unappreciated, discouraging them from going to work day to day.

Unfortunately, if absenteeism happens too often, it could lead to a loss of productivity and performance among your employees.

What Causes Absenteeism Among Employees?

The causes of absenteeism can vary depending on the individual case. Some of these cases include:

• Workplace Burnout

Burnout is a psychological state where people feel exhausted, overworked, and underappreciated. This type of exhaustion can lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism.

So what causes burnout? Several potential factors include long hours, lack of control, unrealistic expectations, and poor leadership.

However, there are certain behaviours that contribute to burnout. These include excessive overtime, working too much while being unproductive, and avoiding tasks due to fear of failure.

If employees aren’t given enough time off to recover, they’ll eventually feel burned out. They might also find themselves unable to cope with stressful situations at work.

• Low Motivation to Come to Work

Employees who feel undervalued, unappreciated, or unsupported often become disengaged and start skipping workdays or taking longer lunch breaks.

This can lead to low morale and, ultimately, lower productivity.

Furthermore, when employees feel like they’re not valued, they may try to avoid negative feedback or criticism. This leads to an increase in absenteeism because they won’t want to come to work.

• Poor Performance

Poor performance is another reason why employees skip work. If they feel like they’re not doing well, they might decide to stay home instead of showing up to work.

They might also choose to do less productive activities such as surfing the internet or watching TV rather than focusing on their job duties.

• Personal Emergencies

Personal emergencies are one of the most common reasons for absenteeism. When employees have personal issues, they might need to miss work.

For example, a family member might get sick, a child might get hurt, or someone’s car might break down.

In addition, if employees don’t have any vacation days left, they might use their last few days before their leave expires to attend to personal matters.

Who Would be Affected the Most by Absenteeism?

Obviously, the biggest victims of absenteeism are both the employer and employees. The more absent employees are, the more likely it is that the company will be understaffed and eventually disrupt the day-to-day operations of the company.

However, even though absenteeism hurts the company financially, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all employees are equally affected by this problem.

Some employees are more prone to absenteeism than others. Therefore, the workload among the remaining employees would be unevenly distributed as they may have to cover for those who skipped work.

This could cause them to experience stress and anxiety about performing their jobs properly. In turn, this could affect their overall performance.

How Can You Reduce Absenteeism Among Your Employees?

There are many things you can do as an employer to help prevent absenteeism among your employees. Here are some tips that you can implement:

1. Have a Good Attendance Policy

Make sure that your company has a clear policy regarding the absence.

Employees can’t follow your workplace absence policy if they don’t know what it is. They won’t understand why you’re asking them to show up if they’ve never seen a copy of the policy. And even if they see it, they might not realize that they should report sick or attend training classes.

If you want to encourage your employees to come to work every day, make sure that you clearly state what happens if they fail to show up.

Be sure to go over the policy with every new employee. In addition, discuss call-out practices and any other policies at staff meetings.

If something specific about the policy needs to be changed, consider holding a meeting where everyone gets a chance to voice their opinions.

This allows employees to ask clarifying questions and ensures that everyone knows exactly what the expectations are.

2. Provide Adequate Training

Provide your employees with enough information about the job so that they can perform well at work.

Also, provide them with the necessary tools and equipment to complete their tasks.

3. Give Them Freedom and Flexibility to Set Work Hours Whenever They Need To

Gone are the days when work is mostly just in the office building.

Offering flexible working hours is integral to creating a healthy workplace culture. Employees are happier and healthier when they feel valued, appreciated, and supported.

They’re less likely to burn out, and they’ll be more productive. This is why some organizations allow employees to work remotely or take advantage of flexible scheduling.

Discuss with your employees how much time off they should take during the year. If possible, try to give them the option to choose between vacation and personal leave.

Allowing employees to choose their schedules helps them feel like they’re part of the team.

This also allows them to balance their personal lives with their professional ones.

4. Make Sure That You Communicate Effectively

Communication is key. If you want to keep your employees happy and productive, you’ll need to communicate with them frequently.

An excellent way to make your employees more engaged and actually want to come to work every day is to maintain an effective internal communications system.

This means having an efficient internal communication system that allows employees to follow what is happening inside the company, suggest improvements and report problems.

Employees are happier and feel more involved when they know what is happening in the company, how it works, what needs to change, and why.

5. Encourage Them to Ask Questions and Give Them Constructive Feedback

Feedback is important. It helps you understand how well you’re performing and where improvements can be made.

But it doesn’t just make your team better—it also makes you better.

Providing constructive criticism is one way to do this. You don’t have to wait for someone to ask for it; you can give it yourself. This will help you identify areas of improvement and keep you motivated.

If you find that your employees are having problems performing their duties, encourage them to ask questions. This way, they will learn more about the job and become more familiar with it.

6. Reward Them for Their Good Performance

When your employees perform well, reward them.

Employees are often motivated by rewards, but some companies offer rewards for certain behaviours without monetarily offering them.

For example, you might offer a free lunch to those who come to work on time every day.

Rewards aren’t limited to just financial incentives; you could also offer prizes like gift cards or tickets to sporting events, whichever works.

Whatever approach you prefer, consider what motivates your employees.

• Is it better to offer a prize for showing up on time or staying out of trouble?
• What types of awards will encourage your employees to perform well?

Think about how much time and effort it takes to implement a reward scheme.

Conclusion

You may not always be able to control everything that happens at your workplace, but you can definitely improve things, one of which is absenteeism.

By overcoming the problem of absenteeism among employees in a good way, it will show you that you care about your employees and their happiness.

<!--EndFragment-->