The Existing Situation
The existing situation in Reddit Firm is that the problem of absenteeism has grappled with and disrupted the smooth flow of business operations and functions. The Reddit organization has 2100 employees working in different departments and lines of production. The company is a logistic company dealing with transportation services, delivery services, cargo handling, handling, information processing, and storage services. The average percentage of staff absenteeism is 20%, negatively impacting Reddit’s operations and functioning. The situation makes the number of staff available at a given moment less, thus raising the challenge of working on time and completing all the duties as expected (Millea et al., 2018).
Why the Situation is Problematic
The existing situation is problematic because the rate of absenteeism in Reddit is high, affecting the everyday running of several operations and functions by causing a productivity decline, making some employees overwork, delaying customer service, piling up business activities, and low employee motivation (King et al., 2020). The organization’s top leadership and management are the most affected by employee absenteeism as they encounter difficulties in delegating duties, coordinating the smooth running of activities, and maintaining optimum productivity rates. In addition, absenteeism also causes Reddit firms to experience considerable losses in paying staff for time not productively spent in the designated areas.
The Desired Situation
The desired situation or the management objective in Reddit firm is to develop and implement some effective policy measures to reduce the existing problem of absenteeism and all its resultant inefficiencies. Reddit’s management and top leadership, aware of the existing challenges brought up by the problem of staff absenteeism, wish to deal with the situation head-on.
- Reddit aims to reduce absenteeism from 20 to, at most, 5 percent. Little or no absenteeism rates will make Reddit witness a smooth flow of activities, as all duties and responsibilities will be done promptly and satisfactorily.
- Implementing strategies to minimize employee absenteeism in Reddit includes rewarding good attendance, prioritizing work-life balance, establishing flexible work schedules, offering emotional and physical health support, enabling remote work opportunities, investing in collaboration, maintaining open communication, and periodically seeking feedback.
The solution to this problem of staff absenteeism will be developed and implemented in several phases. Since it is a problem that has existed for several years, it is deeply rooted and can be phased out slowly. The Reddit management will educate all the staff members on the dangers of being absent from the job, introduce reward systems and criteria targeting employees who are ever present in the workstation, reduce all negative work cultures that promote this absenteeism problem, and introduce some disciplinary measures against defiant employees, such as suspension, sacking, demotion, and denial of privileges to enforce compliance.
Research Questions
In implementing the proposed solutions to the problem of absenteeism in Reddit firms, several research questions are vital to help shape the entire process. These research questions include;
- What is the number or the rate of employee absenteeism that Reddit firm can accommodate without reducing its productivity? (Vulpen, 2023).
- What are the most effective strategies or proposed action changes that are deemed to help in decimating the problem of employee absenteeism? (Mladenovska, 2023).
- The quantity of the resources, both capital and materials, that will be incurred in eradicating the problem of employee absenteeism? (Lopez, 2019).
- The projected implications of the endeavors to eradicate the organizational problem of employee absenteeism will be depicted in the production statistics, growth figures, and expansion figures. (Khan et al., 2020).
Literature Review
Employee absenteeism is a common problem that affects organizations across the corporate sectors, having far-reaching consequences that are felt as comprehensively as in productivity, employee morale, and overall performance (Neuber et al., 2022). Indeed, in their endeavors to actualize their goals and objectives, all corporate organizations must think as a group and develop an elaborate and effective plan that will reduce this challenge and improve organizational productivity and efficiency. Various reasons make an employee absent from workstations, such as minor sicknesses, family commitments, mental issues, toxic work environments, transportation hardships, and management issues. Sometimes, some pandemics also contribute much to employee absenteeism because, in most instances, their livelihoods are negatively impacted, forcing them to require more free time to readjust to the changes. It is not practical for an industry to operate with zero incidences of employee absenteeism because some cases are out of genuine reasons that cannot be underrated. The management in any organization needs to properly regulate work leaves and ensure that the percentage of absenteeism at any given time is at least 5 percent. It is the standard rate of absenteeism that any company can accommodate without overworking the present staff and occasioning management challenges.
Definition of Employee Absenteeism in Corporate Organizations
King et al. (2020) define employee absenteeism as a voluntary situation whereby the employees decide to frequently and unscheduled absent from their workplace where they are stationed. Based on various personal reasons, the employee opts to avoid reporting in their places of performing the duties they are hired to do for the benefit of the organization contracting their services or labor. Some business organizations need help with a significant issue, as they sometimes experience an average staff absenteeism rate of as high as 20% (Millea et al., 2018). The increased absenteeism rate shows the intensity of the problem, requiring a detailed examination of its causes and impacts.
According to Lopez (2019), practically, employee absenteeism means that at a given moment, the number of employees supposed to be taking up various roles and responsibilities is not all present at the designated workstations. The situation means that the specific organization needs to improve in that the duties and responsibilities are performed slowly, the present employees are overworked, employees are compelled to multitask, and customer services are made slower, chasing away potential customers. Any organization with employee absenteeism has a direct advantage over its competitors and rivals as they can use the inefficiencies created to win the disappointed customers and clients.
Established Causes of Employee Absenteeism
Numerous research and surveys in the fields of the academics and corporate world have been done by various groups to understand clearly the real cause of the problem of employee absenteeism that has affected many organizations. The studies were conducted with a common purpose that understanding the underlying causes of absenteeism is a fundamental step toward designing effective management strategies. Past research shows various factors can contribute to absenteeism, from health-related issues to personal problems, job dissatisfaction, and external factors such as transportation and family-related concerns. Lawrence et al. (2021) recognize that these causes usually vary from one individual to another and can often be shared, making it a complex issue to address comprehensively. The commonly identified factors that cause employee absenteeism provide a good framework for policymakers and scholars to develop effective strategies to arrest the situation and reduce the challenge of employee absenteeism.
Significant Impacts of the Prevalence of Employee Absenteeism
The employee absenteeism issue in an organization is a significant challenge that negatively affects operations and performance by lowering productivity, bringing leadership challenges, and negatively affecting the financial stability of the corporate organization that is hit. According to Eluwole et al. (2022), one of the most immediate and visible effects of absenteeism is the decline in productivity within the organization, where employees normalize absenting themselves from the workplace. A high absenteeism rate in any organization puts much pressure on the remaining workforce, forcing them to overcompensate for the absent employees. Overworking the remaining staff increases job dissatisfaction and increases productivity challenge that alters the optimal organizational productivity negatively, resulting in delayed customer service, increased duties for the remaining staff, and piling up critical business activities (King et al., 2020). There is a direct connection between the productivity data and the number of employees engaged, provided all other influencing factors, such as skills and expertise, are constant.
In addition, the responsibility of managing and reducing absenteeism falls heavily on the organizational leadership and management, who are expected to resolve the problem once it emerges. King et al. (2020) opines that in any organization, it is an everyday occasion for leaders to fight challenges related to delegating duties, coordinating activities, and maintaining high productivity if some of their staff or employees are absent. The situation demonstrates the issues that numerous organizations face when absenteeism makes workforce management difficult and needs innovative solutions. Under normal conditions, all organizations are staffed with employees expected to have a particular production level. If the employee number declines, the available staff must apply extra pressure to maintain the expected goals (Eluwole et al., 2022). The management and the organization’s leadership are on the wrong side because they must act quickly and control the absenteeism issue so that it does not become a challenge to the organization.
Lastly, employee absenteeism is not just an operational challenge but also carries significant financial implications that the organization feels. Wang et al. (2020) hold that business firms are likely to experience substantial losses as they continue to pay and remunerate staff for the time that is not productively spent in their hired roles. In most organizations, there is no provision allowing the organization to pay the employees for only the days and hours they spend in the workplace. Even if an employee in a permanent job contract is absent for superficial reasons, their employers are expected to pay them without any deduction to compensate for the lost time. These financial losses show the need for efficient absenteeism management strategies to remove operational issues and reduce financial challenges (King et al., 2020). Prediction of the financial status of an organization with higher rates of employee absenteeism if it is a profit-making business shows that, in the long run, they are likely to get into financial challenges because of unnecessary financial spending and losses.
Objectives and Strategies to Reduce Employee Absenteeism
Regardless of their production line, most organizations know that prevalent employee absenteeism significantly disadvantages their growth. In that regard, they aim to address the issue of absenteeism by designing and implementing clear management objectives and strategies suitable for each situation. Mladenovska (2023), in his research, established that the primary goal of most organizations is to reduce absenteeism rates by implementing effective policy measures and action plans. These objectives align with a growing understanding in business organizations that minimizing absenteeism is essential for achieving and sustaining organizational success. Different organizations have adopted a better approach to address employee absenteeism effectively. Eluwole et al. (2022) suggest some strategies that include rewarding good attendance, prioritizing work-life balance, providing emotional and physical health support, enabling remote work opportunities, fostering collaboration, maintaining open communication, and periodically seeking feedback.
Business organizations need to develop systems where they show the employees who have minor cases of absenteeism and reward them with some monetary goods, give them some promotions, and give them some recognition that will make those, on the contrary, embrace being present in the workplace as much as possible. Organizations need to balance the work and life of their employees by giving them enough rest time to refresh and spend with their family members. Khan et al. (2020) suggest that the approach gives the employees enough time for their interests, significantly reducing their need to be absent to attend to different personal commitments at the expense of work time. Employees’ mental and physical health determines their productivity, concentration, and commitment. Business organizations should develop programs to offer health support to their employees to safeguard their high levels of well-being, reducing ill-health that can eventually result in absenteeism from the job.
For the employees who live far from the workplace, the organizations can help them handle the temptations of being absent by giving them some remote working options. By adopting remote working, the far-resident employees will save much in traveling to the workplaces routinely and will feel well accommodated. It will be impossible for employees working remotely to decide to be absent from attending the job for obvious reasons but will engage in working for longer hours (Millea et al., 2018). Lastly, organizations must invest much in collaboration, seeking feedback, and developing open communications with employees to learn from their experiences. All organizations should have a better communication strategy that will enable top management to learn of the feelings and interests of the employees on a real-time basis. Through such, the business organizations will have enough time to respond and enhance a positive work environment that will suit all employees and boost their morale and commitment towards their work organizations.
Lawrence et al. (2021) assert that the most effective strategies and objectives out of those illustrated in addressing the challenge of employee absenteeism will be making the workplace culture positive and enabling, embracing the health and well-being of the individual employees, and striking a life-work balance for the workers to reduce the needs to absent from the workplace anyhow. The other strategies are less effective than those three but significantly reduce absenteeism if well implemented and executed. These strategies align with research findings emphasizing creating a positive and supportive work environment to reduce absenteeism.
Implementation of the Strategies and Objectives to Phase Out Employee Absenteeism
Various research articles and journals propose a phased approach that is practical and systematic to address an issue as profound as absenteeism. Vulpen (2023) suggests that most organizations acknowledge and appreciate that employee absenteeism is a deep tendency in most people, and it is practically impossible to reduce it in a short time as it requires continuous effort. These well-designed approaches include educational initiatives, cultural changes, and, when necessary, disciplinary measures (King et al., 2020). The organization needs to start implementing some strategies in small bits, mainly to make the employees engage in behavioral changes of their destructive tendencies and, with time, to minimize the problem entirely. This approach provides a comprehensive solution by addressing the root causes and the visible symptoms of absenteeism.
Summary of the Findings
In conclusion, employee absenteeism is a significant issue with many consequences, affecting organizations on different dimensions that have been explored in depth above. From a decrease in productivity to financial losses and management challenges, the impact of absenteeism must be considered because they are a great player that can lead to organizations falling. There is a much need for organizations with the challenge of employee absenteeism to employ a better strategy and adopt a phased approach to mitigate absenteeism’s adverse effects. The literature review has shown the importance of understanding the leading causes of absenteeism, implementing effective strategies, and considering critical research questions to create a more productive and supportive work environment. Most importantly, once an organization develops a new strategy or management objective aimed at reducing employee absenteeism, they need to implement it in a stage to succeed in changing the behaviors and organizational cultures of their employees. Organizations must recognize absenteeism as a significant issue that needs attention and better management to succeed in business operations.
References
Eluwole, K. K., Karatepe, O. M., & Avci, T. (2022). Ethical leadership, trust in the organization, and their impacts on critical hotel employee outcomes. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 102, 103153.
Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T. H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout, and social loafing: A mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6, 1-13.
King, A. T., Gontarz, J., & Wei, H. (2020). Employee engagement and absenteeism: A step towards improving patient care. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 356-361).
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Lopez, J. (2019). Absenteeism: 6 key steps to effectively reduce it. HR Software | The Perfect Online HR System for SMEs. https://kiwihr.com/blog/absenteeism.
Millea, M., Wills, R., Elder, A., & Molina, D. (2018). What matters in college student success? Determinants of college retention and graduation rates. Education, 138(4), 309–322.
Neuber, L., Englitz, C., Schulte, N., Forthmann, B., & Holling, H. (2022). How work engagement relates to performance and absenteeism: a meta-analysis. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 31(2), 292-315.
Vulpen, E. V. (2023). Absenteeism in the workplace: A full guide. AIHR. https://www.aihr.com/blog/absenteeism/.
Wang, K. L., Johnson, A., Nguyen, H., Goodwin, R. E., & Groth, M. (2020). The changing value of skill utilization: Interactions with job demands on job satisfaction and absenteeism. Applied Psychology, 69(1), 30–58.
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