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The Hidden Cost of Absenteeism: New Workplace Options Absence Tracking Helps Businesses Mitigate Missed Work
7 July 2010 – London – Workplace Options, a leading global provider of work-life benefits and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) support, today announced a new employee absence tracking tool for businesses seeking to reduce unplanned absences and manage employee productivity.
According to a June survey on absence and workplace health commissioned by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), employees took 180 million sick days last year, averaging nearly six and a half days per employee. These sick days cost U.K. employers £16.8bn in 2009 alone. In addition, the HR staff surveyed estimated that 15 percent, or 27 million sick days, were not legitimate, and cost the country £2.5bn last year.
As companies focus on cost-cutting measures to survive the economic downturn, more organisations are examining the impact absences have on their workforce and the bottom line.
"Absenteeism has an even wider impact on businesses than the cost of lost productivity," said Alan King, president and chief operating officer at Workplace Options. "When an employee has an unplanned absence, workflow is disrupted and additional work often lands in the laps of colleagues, resulting in disgruntled staff. Customer service and teamwork can also suffer."
Reports indicate that simply having an absence tracking tool in place can decrease the rate of absences. "Implementing a tracking tool helps companies manage and control absences so that absences don’t manage and control their businesses," added King.
As part of its EAP offerings, Workplace Options is now integrating its Workforce Advantage Absence Tracking tool without any additional charge. Clients can use the web-based application to track and review employee absence trends and identify opportunities to proactively support their staff when problematic absences arise.
Integrating the absence tracking tool with an organisation’s EAP solution provides the opportunity for management to identify absences of a certain nature, and connect staff with the appropriate EAP service to help. For example, if an employee reports multiple absences related to stress, dependent care or even a sore back, the organisation can refer the employee to services that company has purchased to them to help resolve the issue.
"Introducing employee absence tracking as an integrated service for our clients is a natural addition to our world-class EAP services because it offers an added layer of support for organisations," said Dean Debnam, Chief Executive Officer for Workplace Options. "EAP services are all about improving satisfaction and work-life balance for employees while improving productivity and retention for companies. Tracking and analysing absences not only helps keep employees on the job, it keeps employees connected to the right support resources. It’s a terrific, proactive management solution and we’re excited to see what cost-savings and productivity results it will bring our clients."
Workplace Options is the first EAP provider to offer absence tracking as an integrated service at no additional charge. The employee absence tracking solution is available immediately as an integrated service and can be customised to suit each individual organisation. For more information on Workforce Advantage Absence Tracking or other products and services offered by Workplace Options, visit www.workplaceoptions.com or call 0800 027 4939.
About Workplace Options
Workplace Options helps employees balance their work, family and personal life in order to make their lives healthier, easier and more productive. The company’s world-class Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and work-life services provide information, resources, referrals and counselling on a variety of issues ranging from dependent care, legal and financial issues to mental health, stress management and addiction.
Drawing from an international network of accredited providers and professionals, Workplace Options is the world’s largest integrated EAP and work-life services provider. Service centres in London, Raleigh. N.C., Toronto and Dublin support more than 22 million employees in 16,000 organisations, across 153 countries. To learn more, visit www.workplaceoptions.com.
© 2010 Workplace Options, Inc. All rights reserved.
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