Presenteeism is a work issue that is more costly to businesses and more pervasive in workplaces than absenteeism and tardiness combined. Estimates for business losses from presenteeism range from $150 to $250 billion annually and many think that it is as much as three times that. Employers are only just starting to realize and contend with this HR issue.

Part of understanding and coping with the issue has been to define it. Once thought to describe only employees who weren’t fully productive at work because they were working sick, today the term presenteeism is used to describe employees who are less than fully productive at work for a myriad of reasons including acute, chronic or episodic illness, difficulty adjusting after an illness or injury, a major personal or family problem, child care or elder care demands, or deep employee dissatisfaction. Given how prevalent it is and how costly it can be, is there anything that employers can do about presenteeism? Here are seven winning strategies to help reduce presenteeism. Continue reading →

Absenteeism is a work behavior that every manager and Human Resources department deals with and dreads. When an employee fails to report to work, it often creates a hardship for that employee’s coworkers, manager and — depending on the position — customers. It is to be expected that employees may have to miss work occasionally due to all kinds of reasons. But it is actually a fairly expensive problem that is on rise. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unplanned absences cost American businesses an average of 2.8 million workdays each year – equivalent to the loss of $74 billion dollars. Others think the cost to business may be three times as high.

Yet, as expensive as absenteeism is, there is a work-place issue that is even more costly and pervasive, affecting a much larger part of the workforce. It is called presenteeism. The term presenteeism originally referred to employees that aren’t absent from work but aren’t fully productive at work because they are sick. However, since then the definition of presenteeism has been expanded to include other reasons that cause employees to be less than fully productive at work. Today, employers and HR Departments have shifted their focus from issues such as tardiness and absenteeism to the larger and more pervasive problem of presenteeism. Considered now to be one of the biggest HR issues facing business, just exactly what is presenteeism? What is its cost to business? And, most importantly, what can be done about it?
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Once upon a time not so long ago, people went through life without having a mobile phone, smart phone or tablet attached to their hip. They somehow managed to walk down the street without taking a call. They could watch their child’s soccer match without doing a Google search. They could relax on their living room couch at the end of the day without responding to a text message. They could eat dinner with the family without replying to a client’s umpteenth email. And children could talk about their day at dinner without playing an electronic game. Adults and children alike weren’t continuously “plugged in” and yet were somehow still industrious, successful and happy. Those days seem gone forever thanks to the “Hand-Held Device Revolution.”

According to Comscore.com, in March, 2012, 234 million Americans age 13 and older had mobile devices. Half of those phones were smart phones. Companies provide their employees with smart phones or tablets that have apps, email and Internet connectivity 24/7. Those companies then expect employees to have those devices on 24/7. Indeed, 50% of employed respondents in a survey felt that think that mobiles increase their workload. That’s because, thanks to those hand-held devices, for many the work day doesn’t end. Even for those who turn off their devices to honor the Sabbath, the hand-held devices are on 24/6. That turns the 5-day, 40-hour work week into the 6-day, 144-hour work week. In fact, many are addicted to their hand-held devices – such as iPads, iPhones, Blackberries (there’s a reason they call them Crackberries), Androids, tablets, iTouches, etc. — and cannot imagine life without them. While many managers may consider this a good thing, few really stop to consider the price being paid for keeping staff constantly ‘connected’. It is not just a vague social or emotional toll, but an actual hard cost. Just as last week we did a cost-benefit analysis of providing employees with unlimited Internet access, companies may also need to weigh the pros and cons of hand-held devices. Here are just a few drawbacks to consider. Continue reading →