Employee Engagement and Absenteeism: Strategies to Boost Productivity

This essay discusses the importance of employee engagement in reducing absenteeism and boosting productivity. It explores strategies such as recognition, balance in home and work obligations, autonomy, and feedback. The essay cites examples of companies that have implemented these strategies and seen positive results. The essay also includes references to relevant books and journals.

Employee
Engagement And
Absenteeism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION:...............................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION:...................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:....................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION:
Employee engagement is the measurement of employees being personally
invested and emotionally connected while working for an organisation. There are a
variety of components which can assist in engaging employees,such as work
recognizing the contribution of the employee and compensating them. ( King, Gontarz,
and Wei, 2020) These components signal to companies where they need to concentrate in
order to boost productivity or in this case curb absenteeism . The essay will detail various
four ideas and critically analyse them to test them for viability. Firstly the effect of appreciation
and recognition in addition to work and home obligation will be discussed. Further the autonomy
for workers and feedback system will be analysed.
MAIN BODY
Employees being regularly absent from work creates non-conducive environment for
production capability of an enterprise. The employee engagement program can solve this problem.
Since most of the leaves taken from the workplace relate to employees needing time for their own
self or medical reasons. The employee engagement program could take measures to reduce their
stress and improve well being. Employees will need less time for their own selves if they are
satisfied with work environment.
Acknowledging and appreciating the contribution of employees:
It could either be through words or material gift. Just getting a check is not enough for
people they need to feel respected and appreciated. Showing gratitude towards the work is essential
in retaining their interests and creating constructive and blissful culture of work.
A poll asked the people who left voluntarily when asked for their reason for their departure,
nearly 80 percent replied it was due to not getting enough recognition(Christianson,2018)
Before the stage at which people leave, they continually absent themselves from work in
order to be sure of their decision. As most employees can't afford to live unemployed they may be
taking these leaves regularly in order to look for more job avenues for themselves. So it stands to
reason if they are recognised and appreciated at their work then they are less likely to go on job
interviews and absent themselves from work. Also they are less likely to take time for themselves
since their well being is taken care of by the enterprise.(Clack, 2020)

Balance in Home and work obligations
Meeting Work obligations is a foundational aspect of an individuals life. When the time of
actual working hours plus the time taken to travel is accounted for it is clear that these obligations
related to work take up nearly all of the time available to an individual. The enterprises need to
account for their workers having to full fill the obligations they have in relation to their home or
personal life. Such as taking care of dependents whether it is their parents, kids or spouses. Creating
such policies such as flexibility in working hours or letting employees work from home promotes
their physical and metal well being.
The company Microsoft operating its branch in japan recently piloted a project to give three
days off to their workers. Their rationale for introducing such a policy was that employees would be
able to fulfil their obligations at home which would make them more satisfied with work and be
more productive. According to the numbers reported by Microsoft employee output increased by
nearly 40 percent more importantly the employees took less time off by nearly 25 percent .(Mani,
and Mishra, 2021)
The employees if given more time to meet personal obligations will take better care of
themselves in terms of eating a better diet because they have time to cook their food, getting regular
exercises, and generally paying more attention to their health due to which they tend to to take less
leaves from work.
Giving greater freedom and autonomy
To workers to handle the tasks assigned to them can result in greater work satisfaction which
can reduce the instances of workers taking time off regularly. Micromanaging every aspect related
to the work of the employee makes them feel confined due to which their creativity and mental well
being suffers. Whereas if they are given certain autonomy then can fell a sense of connectedness
and belonging due to which they are less likely to get frustrated and take time off.
The parent company of google implemented a programme, where in certain percentage of
their time would be allotted to doing their regular work and certain time would be allotted for
imaginative work. The product of such imaginative work was “ad sense” which accounts for a huge
chunk of Google's revenue.(Antony, 2018)
The rationale behind such a policy is that employees could be proud of their work and feel a
certain sense of control.
Feed back
Received from the employees on how to make the conditions related to work better could
reduce workers taking time off. Workplace harassment and bullying has been a major reason for

workers taking time off on a regular basis. This reduces their interest in work and makes them
weary of showing up to work. Such practices hurt their emotional and mental state of self and can
hamper their productivity.
Master card uses this method to ensure that the voices and ideas of employees are not
ignored due to which they are able to reduce absenteeism.(Simoski, and Klein, 2022)
If the a feedback system is established which is continually taken from the employees then it
could reduce their fear in speaking out. Since taking feedback and acting on the feedback has been
imbibed in the culture of the company. The employees feel a sense of protection. Moreover this
feedback loop could mitigate other ailments of the employees and increase their productivity.
CONCLUSION:
The report above provides four employee engagement programmes which could reduce absenteeism
they are recognizing and appreciating the work of employees, giving more flexibility to workers so
that they can meet their obligations of work, further the employees could be given freedom and
autonomy to workers for managing their tasks and lastly feedback on various practices could be
taken into account for the company to know what works and what doesn't. It is recommended that
the companies could create more constructive incentives and awards for employees in addition to
giving them 3 days off. Further they should allot certain time for creative work to take place and
lastly establish a robust feedback system.(Turner,2020)

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Antony, M.R., 2018. Paradigm shift in employee engagement–A critical analysis on the drivers of
employee engagement. International Journal of Information, Business and Management, 10(2),
pp.32-46.
Christianson, L.K., 2018. Defining a Model to Reduce and Prevent Absenteeism in the
Workplace (Doctoral dissertation, The College of St. Scholastica).
Clack, L., 2020. Employee engagement: keys to organizational success. The Palgrave Handbook of
Workplace Well-Being, pp.1-28.
King, A.T., Gontarz, J. and Wei, H., 2020, July. Employee engagement and absenteeism: a step
towards improving patient care. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 356-361).
Mani, S. and Mishra, M., 2021. Employee engagement constructs:“CARE” model of engagement–
need to look beyond the obvious.Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Simoski, B. and Klein, M.C., 2022. Effectiveness of a mHealth Coaching Program on Predictors of
Work Absenteeism. In International Conference on Wireless Mobile Communication and
Healthcare (pp. 204-220). Springer, Cham.
Turner, P., 2020. Why Is Employee Engagement Important?. In Employee engagement in
contemporary organizations (pp. 57-84). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.