Impact of Employee Absenteeism on Organisation Performance: A Study on Sainsbury

Research project
(To identify the impact of employee’s
absenteeism over organisation
performance and productivity within the
retail industry of UK)
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ABSTRACT
The main purpose and aim of the present research is to determine the impact of
absenteeism of employees on the overall productivity and performance of the company. There
are several objectives that also fulfilled in this following research such as to study the concept of
employee absenteeism in the retail industry, to examine the different types of factors that
determines employee absenteeism within the company, to determine the challenges faced by
company and its effect on the performance of an organisation and to analyse the different types
of strategies for reducing the absenteeism of employees in the company. The research
methodology that the researcher will be using for collecting data is both primary and secondary
methods. The information is collected by using questionnaire in the numeric form which helps in
supporting the findings of the research. The present research mainly focus on reducing the
impact of absenteeism among employees so that performance and productivity of the company
can be improved. This is necessary for the company and helps in improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of employees towards achieving the aims and objectives of the research in an
precise and reliable manner. The researcher has selected this research topic in order to obtain the
detailed information about topic in an effective manner and by using efficient research methods
for deriving accurate and sustained quantitative data for conducting the whole research
effectively. Thus, the discussion about the conclusion and recommendation is also been included
in the current research project along with reflection in order to support better skill development
career.
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Overview of the topic...................................................................................................................4
Background of the company........................................................................................................4
Research aim and objective.........................................................................................................5
Research question........................................................................................................................5
Research rational..........................................................................................................................5
Research problem.........................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................7
What is the concept of employee absenteeism within the context of retail industry?.................7
What are the factors that influence employee absenteeism within an organisation?...................9
What are the challenges faced by Sainsbury due to consistent employee absenteeism and its
impact on organisation performance?........................................................................................12
What are the different strategies implemented by Sainsbury in order to reduce employee
absenteeism within their organisation?......................................................................................14
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................18
RESULTS......................................................................................................................................21
Frequency Distribution Table....................................................................................................21
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................23
Data Interpretation.....................................................................................................................23
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION....................................................................................................35
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................38
REFLECTION ..............................................................................................................................41
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................42
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................45
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................45
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INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
Employee absenteeism can be defined as the absence made by the employee apart from the
accepted time span. The habitual behavior of the employee to take frequent leaves in known as
absenteeism. In this employee does not come to the workplace and perform their duty. It is
being seeing that employee absenteeism impact the organizational performance in negative
manner (Karatepe, Rezapouraghdam and Hassannia, 2020). Absenteeism in the organisation
occur because of many reason. Some of them are low employee engagement, less motivation,
workplace burnout, mental illness, family issue and many more. There are two types of
employee absenteeism that are:
 Culpable absenteeism: This is that type of absenteeism where employee does not
provide the legitimate reason for not coming to work.
 Non culpable absenteeism: In this staff provide the valid and legitimate reason for
missing the work or not coming to the work.
It is very important for the organisation to look out the factor of employee absenteeism
because it affect their organizational performance in poor manner. Organisational performance
can be defined as the process of measuring the actual result of the company with the standard
result. It is very important for the company to match their actual outcome with stander because it
helps them in attaining aim and objective. There are various types to measure organizational
performance such as human resource outcomes, accounting result, capital market result and
many more (Dyrbye and et. al, 2019).
In recent time employee absenteeism is a very serious concern because human resources are
the biggest assets for the company. Through their efforts and skills, the actual business operation
is being conducted. High absenteeism arte impact the market image of the brand which affect the
recruitment and selection process of the organisation. Loss of productivity is one of the major
concern of employee absenteeism which directly affect the revenue capacity of the firm as well
as increase the cost of capital (Hansen, Løkke and Sørensen, 2019).
Background of the company
The selected organisation for the current investigation is Sainsbury. It is the second largest
supermarket store in United Kingdom. The company hold 16% of the total UK market share. The
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founder of the Sainsbury is John James Sainsbury, who founded the brand in the year 1869.
Headquarter of Sainsbury is in London, England. The store of Sainsbury is located in different
parts of United kingdoms and almost there are 1428 shops are there. Some of the well famous
brand of the organisation are Argos, Habitat, Nectar and TU. The company is divided into
various sector such as hyper market, supermarket, Convenience shop and Forecourt shop. There
are some subsidiaries of Sainsbury which are Sainsbury’s bank, Sainsbury’s supermarkets and
Sainsbury’s local. The company is selected because there are more than 1, 80,000 employee
works in Sainsbury, so the researcher wants to see the impact of employee’s absenteeism in their
performance.
Research aim and objective
Research aim:
To identify the impact of employee’s absenteeism over organisation performance and
productivity: A study on Sainsbury
Research objective:
 To understand the concept of employee absenteeism within the context of retail industry.
 To examine the factor that influence employee absenteeism within an organisation
 To discern the challenges faced by Sainsbury due to consistent employee absenteeism
and its impact on organisation performance
 To analysis the different strategies implemented by Sainsbury in order to reduce
employee absenteeism within their organisation
Research question
 What is the concept of employee absenteeism within the context of retail industry?
 What are the factors that influence employee absenteeism within an organisation?
 What are the challenges faced by Sainsbury due to consistent employee absenteeism and
its impact on organisation performance?
 What are the different strategies implemented by Sainsbury in order to reduce employee
absenteeism within their organisation?
Research rational
The main reason for carrying out the research is to gain deeper understanding on employee
absenteeism. This investigation helps the researcher to acquire knowledge regarding the impact
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of employee absenteeism on organizational performance. This investigation will also highlight
the factors which influence employee absenteeism as well as also helps in examine the
challenges company will face due to high employee absenteeism. Through this research
investigator will also get to know the various strategies that can be used to reduce employee
absenteeism within the organisation (Ozturk and Karatepe, 2019). The current research is of
great interest as it will facilitate in attaining dual objective which are personal and professional.
In respect to the personal objective this investigation will helps in enhancing the knowledge
about the tool, method and technique used in research so that investigation can be completed in
systematic and scientific manner. Another personal objective would be; this investigation will
build certain skills in me which facilities in doing research in appropriate manner. Some of the
skills which will be developed are communication skill, problem solving skill, data analytical
skill, research skill and many more (Grinza and Rycx, 2020). Whereas in context to professional
objective, the current investigation will identify various human resource jobs available in various
organisation. So that professional career can be developed in sound manner. Other professional
objective that will be gained is through this research various strategies will be knowing which
helps in reducing the employee absenteeism when I will be working as a human resource
manager in any organisation. Thus, the current research is quite significant in successfully
fulfilling the personal and professional objective.
Research problem
The problem that is being identify in the current investigation is that employee absenteeism
affect the production of the company in great manner. It is very important for the company to
reduce the absence in their company if they want gain competitive edge from them. Employee
absenteeism creates problem for the company as their business activity will hinder (Malmberg-
Ceder and et. al, 2020). Employee absenteeism has also affect the market image of the company.
Organisation will face difficulty in hiring and attracting pool of talent in their company. One of
the major problem of employee absenteeism is loss of productivity and low employee
motivation.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
It is the chapter that covers second-hand information about the chosen research topic. This
focuses over addressing each research question in such a way that aim of the study could be
easily attained. The secondary sources used in the present study are: books, magazines,
newspapers, publications, articles, already conducted interviews, questionnaire and so on.
What is the concept of employee absenteeism within the context of retail industry?
According to Zondo (2020), absenteeism is defined as the term which shows the habitual
non-presence of individuals working in the organisation. Habitual non-presence increases
beyond what is deemed to be within an acceptable realm of days away from the organisation for
legitimate reasons such as emergency in family, occasional illness and scheduled leaves and
vacations. Possible reasons of over-absenteeism involve ongoing personal challenges, job
dissatisfaction and chronic medical issues and challenges. Without having any proper reason, an
employee who takes continuous leave may tarnish their own reputation in the workplace and this
directly impacts their long-term employability negatively. But, there are some of the reasons of
absenteeism in the organisation that are acceptable as well as legally protected. Organisations
expect their workforce to miss some operations every year for legitimate reasons. However,
when an employee takes continuous leave or remain absent from their work then it directly
impacts the operations and functions of the organisation. Missing opportunities or work become
one of the challenges for an organisation when an employee is repeatedly or unexpectedly
absent. Companies has to go through many challenges when employees are absent and they get
more worried when they have to pay their employees even though they were absent for their
work. It becomes one of the major problems when an employee is missing from their assigned
roles and responsibilities during deadlines of the projects and busy times of the year.
Therefore, employee absenteeism within retail sector has a negative impact over
organisations, with both operational and financial challenges. It simply creates burden on the
team of HR, who require to find out more alternatives to cover the hours an individual is absent.
Employee absenteeism creates a negative atmosphere within the different teams and departments
of the organisation. When an employee is absent unexpectedly and take continuously leave then
it also lead to poor customer service. This becomes the main reason to adopt different strategies
to control and reduce employee absenteeism in the workplace. This will help retail companies to
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avoid high level of absenteeism and manage team operations effectively and efficiently. Some of
the major causes or reasons that make an employee to take off from an organisation are
explained below in a brief manner (Neuber and et. al., 2022). There are some reasons that are
generally outside the company which have to do with people themselves.
Medical and healthcare absences: This kind of absence generally occurs when the
employee needs time off for attending an appointment or undergoing a medical process, or
requests sick leave for their temporary illness.
Force majeure causes: It is the main case in which employees claim incidents such as
transport issues, network failure, and bad weather. Employees use these reasons to prevent them
from doing work of organisation and showing up for their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Family and personal reasons: The other major reason of the employee absenteeism in
the workplace is family and personal reasons. Some of the family issues may include: caring of a
dependent or a child. The other reason of employee absenteeism is emotional causes of an
employee or when they do additional work other than their main job.
Demoralisation and stress: Stress and demoralisation are known as two factors that have
direct influence on rates of absenteeism in the workplace. A lack of engagement with the
company or with the motive of the operations the workforce does are common reasons for high
levels of absenteeism in the workplace.
Some of the other main reasons related to the organisation are given below in a brief way.
An employee takes leave from their work due to challenges or issues they face in their working
organisation. These are given below in a brief way.
High workload: One of the major causes of employee absenteeism in the workplace is
burnout or workload in the organisation. This creates frustration, stress and dissatisfaction among
customers and make them absent from their assigned operations and work.
High employee turnover: The other major reason of employee absenteeism in the
organisation is employees leaving the organisation and joining new companies. It creates
negative impact over remaining employees who are currently working in the organisation. High
employee turnover in teams show that an organisation needs to find alternatives for absent
colleagues. The leaders and managers of the team also focus on identifying the reasons why
members of the team are leaving organisation. This ultimately assists in controlling employee
absenteeism in the workplace.
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