A lot of companies are having issues with employees taking too much sick leave, and absenteeism can cost your business in more ways than many people imagine. When you have fewer employees on the floor, production is affected, and so is the morale of the employees who have to pick up the slack. This can lead to difficulties keeping your employees and put your business in serious financial trouble. If sick leaves are becoming a concern in your business, here are some things that you could do starting today.
Encourage Healthy Eating Habits
Your employees’ diets can not only affect the number of sick days they take per year but how efficient they are at their job as well. Poor eating habits can lead to increased stress, which is a direct contributor to absenteeism. But it can affect your employees’ concentration, judgment, speed of execution, and morale too.
If you suspect that some or most of your employees have unhealthy eating habits, you should consider implementing a healthy food card program through a service like Incomm Payments as it will allow you to influence their food choice positively whether they’re under your watch or not. You could also change food options at the cafeteria or give your employees access to a nutritionist, among other things.
Offer Mental Health Days
Mental health days often get a bad rap, but allowing your employees to take a day or two for themselves from time to time can allow you to reduce fake sick days and total sick days in your organization. They can also boost morale and could reduce the number of employees you lose to burnout.
Have an Employee Assistance Program
You never know what one of your employees may be going through, and they might not have the resources around them to help cope with difficult situations. This is one of the reasons why many employees call in sick.
One of the things you could do to prevent this from happening would be to institute an employee assistance program. These programs will assist any worker going through a rough patch and will guide them toward the proper resources. Not only will this help your employees cope with bad situations better and reduce the days that they need off, but it will also give you a clearer view of what’s going on with your workforce.
Provide Your Employee with a Clear Schedule
Many businesses like fast food restaurants and retailers offer variable schedules to their employees. Some will do this for part-time employees only and some will do it for all of their employees.
If sick leaves have always been an issue in your organization and you’re employing this model, then you may have found your culprit. Consider switching to a fixed schedule and see if you can notice any improvements. Also, know that the overwhelming majority of employees prefer this format, so you really have nothing to lose here.
These are all techniques that you can use to reduce the occurrence of sick days in your organization. Try implementing some or all of them and keep as close an ear on what’s happening on the ground where possible.
