Office, Shop and Restaurant Cleaning Services

Three Steps To Reduce Employee Absenteeism This Coming Summer

17 November 2014

Enrique Howell

The end of the year is coming. Your employees are tired, and the rising temperature outside is a lot more enticing than another day at the office. In 2012, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that approximately one in 40 Australian workers call in sick each day. The lost productivity your business experiences from absent employees adds up over the course of a year. Here are three ways you can encourage your employees to say no to days off these coming summer workdays, and be at their workstations instead.

Financial Incentive

It is time to change the mentality that an employee's wage packet is enough to convince them to come to work every day. While they know that excessive days off could lead to them losing their jobs, they will always rationalise that a day off here and there isn't really hurting anyone.

The problem is that you, as the business owner, know differently. Offer them financial incentives so that they save the beach time for the weekends. For example:

• Give them the choice from a range of gift cards for not calling in sick over a predetermined length of time, such as a $25 or $50 reward for no sick days taken in a three month working period.
• Offer an alternative cash reward that they can cash in per quarter, or roll over for a double or nothing cash out if they can maintain full attendance for two quarters in a row.

If you do choose to offer this financial incentive, you need to define in the rules whether it only applies to sick days or all days off. There also needs to be a rule about employees who come to work when they are genuinely sick because they do not want to lose progress on their incentive. A sick employee who spreads their germs at work will cost you more in lost productivity than the incentive they are trying to claim.

Reduce Sickness

It is estimated that an office telephone has 25,127 microbes on every square inch of phone surface. These will transfer to your employee's hands. They are then transferred to door handles, microwave touch pads and every other part of the office that your employee will touch. It does not take long for nasty germs that cause sickness to attach themselves to every surface of your office.

If you are not currently employing a company to thoroughly clean your office regularly, now is the time to start. Armed with bleach, cleaning chemicals, and manpower, a cleaning service can make sure that the transfer to germs is kept to a minimum. Areas that need particular attention are:

• bathrooms
• office desks
• telephones
• computers, monitors, keyboards and mice
• door handles
• kitchen areas

You will particularly notice the difference when the annual cold and flu season starts. During these peak illness periods, increase the number of times per week that your office is cleaned to reduce the spread of bugs.

Extra Scheduled Time Off

When an employee calls in sick, there is a scramble to make sure that their work is done by other employees, particularly if they have outstanding tasks that require urgent attention. However, when you know that an employee is going to be away for a day, arrangements can be made well in advance to make sure no tasks go untouched.

Allow each employee a paid day once a year that is not part of their holiday time. The stipulation is that this day must be used to visit their doctor for an annual health checkup. Encouraging an employee to visit the doctor on your time and not theirs increases the chance that potential medical problems are caught before they become serious.

Most Australian employees are entitled to 10 days of sick leave under their employment contract. At the end of each year reward your employees for sick days that they did not take. For example, for every 2 days of sick leave not taken, they are given one extra paid day off during the course of the year. Require that this day must be taken with two weeks advance notice and you can then ensure their workload is covered.

These three steps can help to significantly increase employee productivity, and reduce the number of days that you are losing money because you don't have a full staff on hand. Rather than being reactive to possible absenteeism this summer, be proactive instead. You will be rewarded with more employee working days than ever before, and that in turn will translate into happy customers.

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