Improving Absence Management in Food Production: A Strategic Review

This report investigates absence management in the food production sector, focusing on strategic human resource management and its impact on organizational productivity and costs. It explores the causes of employee absenteeism, primarily stemming from work dissatisfaction, and reviews various research methodologies used to address this issue. The report highlights the detrimental effects of absenteeism, including production losses and unequal workload distribution, emphasizing the importance of proactive management strategies. It also includes a literature review and recommendations for BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited, suggesting contemporary methods for managing employee absence more efficiently. The research objectives include reviewing current literature, identifying existing absence management methods, proposing dynamic strategies, and conducting follow-up reviews to ensure effective implementation and reporting to senior management. The report concludes by stressing the significance of effective absence management in fostering positive employee relations and minimizing financial losses.

Running head: Absence management in the food production sector
ABSENCE MANAGEMENT IN THE FOOD PRODUCTION SECTOR
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1Absence management in the food production sector
Executive Summary:
This project intends to investigate the causes of absenteeism in companies which is a part of
strategic human resource management. The importance of absenteeism of employees has
become an issue because it affects the productivity of the organization as well as the
organization incurs a cost of absence. The reason of such behaviour by the resources of the
companies is mostly because of dissatisfaction of work. This paper looks into the various
ways used to conduct research upon this issue and on finding out the results, some
recommendations that might be of assistance to the organization. The issues associated with
the absenteeism in an organization can lead to the loss in the production and in turn, revenue.
It also affects the workforce by unequal distribution of workload, which should be taken care
of by the managers of the company. This paper also talks about such steps that can be taken
by the managers to avoid the loss by the company.

2Absence management in the food production sector
Table of Contents
Executive Summary:..................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction to Research:....................................................................................................3
1.1 Aim and Objective:......................................................................................................................3
1.2 Key Stakeholders:........................................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review:..............................................................................................................5
3 Critique of Literature Review:................................................................................................5
3.1 Justification of Research Selected:...............................................................................................5
3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Research selected.................................................................7
3.3 How could this be applied to BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited......................................8
4. Proposed Presentation of Findings.........................................................................................9
4.1 Line Graphs................................................................................................................................10
4.2 Bar Charts..................................................................................................................................10
5. Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................11
5.1 Recommendation:.....................................................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................13

3Absence management in the food production sector
1. Introduction to Research:
1.1 Aim and Objective:
There has been many researches that have been conducted to determine the relations
of Human Resource Manager and the employees of a company. In this context, it is the duty
of the Human Resource Management to consider and solve the problems faced by the
employees. This is because the problems can lead to a loss in the finance of an organization.
Absence Management is the process of reduction of absenteeism of employees due to factors
of sickness and injury strategically through procedures. The policies are required to be
communicated properly to the employees and managers by the Human Resource managers so
that they can have an effective impact. Absence management is required by organizations to
communicate about their policies that cover the absence of the employees. It is an integral
aspect of constructing effective employee relations by the company the organization in focus
here is BM Food Manufacturers.
Absence of employees in a company is not considered beneficial to the organization
since it results to the loss in production and funds. Several researches have been conducted on
absence management in many industries but not on the food production industry. It is
important for any organization in the food production sector to take appropriate actions on
this issue so that they can decrease the damage caused to them. At the same time, good
absence management policies also help the Human Resource Management to build good
relations with the employees.
The aim of this research is to suggest new and effective ways in which absence of
employees can be managed more efficiently amongst the staff and management team,
focussing on reports of case study of various companies of the food production sector.

4Absence management in the food production sector
The research objectives are as follows:
i. Review of the current literature around absence management methods.
ii. Identification and review of current Absence Management methods within the
company of BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited.
iii. Proposal and recommendation of contemporary and dynamic ways by which Absence
Management Methods can be used and implemented.
iv. A follow up review of the methods after twelve months of implementation and
inclusion and reporting to the senior management of the company.
1.2 Key Stakeholders:
BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited was established in the year 2006. The entity
has the capability of manufacturing a wide range of frozen products throughout Britain. BM
Food Manufacturers Private Limited has two chief processing plants. The first one is located
in Bristol and the other one outside Cardiff. Fresh products are delivered twice a week to all
the clients across the country. The mission of the company is to introduce upheaval,
manufacture, dispense and market food products of magnificent quality generated in an
environment that is controlled and using the freshest and finest of ingredients. The mission is
the creation of a workplace that pays respect and value to the population from disparate
backgrounds that enables all working employees to reach their maximum capacity.
Key Stakeholders Level of Interest Reason of Interest
Customers Medium The most important
stakeholder in a business is
their customers, they are the
one for whom the products are
manufactured and acquired.

5Absence management in the food production sector
Investors High The investors are the one who
provide money with which the
business goes forward.
Employees Medium The most important resource
for a company.
Interest Groups High The various groups such as
the vendors, suppliers all are
important stakeholder to the
business.
2. Literature Review:
Theories about attendance of the employees and absenteeism at wok organizations
have been existent for many years. The theories have often regarded absenteeism in an
elaborated manner and considered several reasons for absence. According to (Gosselin,
Lemyre and Corneil 2013), sickness has been observed as one of the several reasons for
absence but has not been given proper attention. The studies conducted on the concept have
been considered absenteeism majorly from two angles. Apart from that, the absence of the
employees in the workplaces is significantly attached to the external factors like the
differences in opinion among the employees or the cultural differences among the employees
which is barring the effective and fruitful communication among the employees. According
to Mowday, Porter and Steers (2013), the organizations are observing significant amount of
issues regarding the decision making of the organization on whether they will allow the
employees to conduct in their own way or there will be specified mode of operation
prescribed by the organization. It is observed that the employees who prefers to do the job in
independent way or in the way which they prefer, are facing the issues in a more evident as

6Absence management in the food production sector
almost every organization is striving towards having a specified method of business
conduction. The individual mode of conduction are observed to have significant amount of
conflicts with the specified method of the organizations. Stoetzer et al. (2014) states that an
in depth analysis of the cross cultural issues will portray the fact that the major reason behind
the absence of the employees is the dissatisfaction generated from the cross cultural
differences among the employees. Several critics of the cross cultural communication is able
to acknowledge that the employees of different culture faces significant amount of difficulty
in integrating among them as the language or the cultural assimilation may not be there. This
is a notable reason which affects the fruitful communication among the employees which is
highly desired in cases of effective team work. In such cases where the integration is not
achieved among all the employees owing to the reason of cultural differences, are observed to
have significant detrimental effects in the operations as a team. These creates considerable
amount of dissatisfaction among the employees as the fails to deliver in the desired manner.
Apart from that the study of Cucchiella, Gastaldi and Ranieri (2014) confirms that the wages
and the work-time characteristics is a major reason behind the absenteeism. The
functionalistic approach defined absenteeism as a deviant behaviour that can be attributed to
unsatisfactory working conditions, whereas the analytical approach defined is as a social
conflict between works and employers. Absence from work was segregated to absence for the
reason of illness and voluntary absence.
3 Critique of Literature Review:
3.1 Justification of Research Selected:
The qualitative research methods are usually used to determine the rate of
absenteeism and the factors causing it. This is due to the different opinions of different
individuals that are neither quantitative in nature nor can they be determined by quantitative
methods of research. (Siukola 2013) used methods such as questionnaires, collecting data

7Absence management in the food production sector
from sick absence register, group interviews and senior programmes. Collection of data by
the questionnaire method is considered to be the most common method of conducting
qualitative research. It has certain advantages.
Absent Management in food industry
The concepts of absenteeism was investigated by (Gangai16 2014) and were divided
into four categories mainly. The first category suggested if the satisfaction is high with the
company and the immediate work situation, then the rate of absenteeism is low. Secondly, if
the rate of satisfaction is high but low with the work situation then the rate of absenteeism is
high. However, if the level of satisfaction is low with the company, but high with the
situation of work, there is a high rate of absenteeism.
According to (Cucchiella, Gastaldi and Ranieri 2014), absenteeism is defined as
occasional absenteeism from work by habit for several days, which is generally rationalized
by a medical certificate but actually because of personal interests and poor sense of duty. In
addition, it is also defined as mediocrity, lack of interest in problems of political and social in
nature or on issues of customary interest. The pessimistic meanings of these definitions can
be noticed which highlight the misuse of the personal absences as opposed to the interest of
the society or the company. It is the negative side of the problem that is usually underlined
even though it is a necessity and justified in several instances. It is also a right, which is
obtained luckily after years of struggles of the working class. The authors have defined
absenteeism into various expressions, which are permitted by law. One of the factors that can
be considered as absenteeism is vacation, which is a period of relaxation from work. In
addition, day off or absenteeism from employment for a definite period that is planned from
earlier with the employer is also considered as absenteeism. Strike or the collective avoidance
of work by the working employees for the purpose of protecting their interests of economy,

8Absence management in the food production sector
politics and union. Leaves or suspension of work by the employees to reconnect the position
of the employer with his commitments to the public or the occurrence of issues related to self
or family.
Comparison with other industry
The major forms of absenteeism in the food production sector are sick leaves.
However, there are other factors why employees are absent from work. Absence Management
is the tool of Human Resource Management that investigates into these factors to introduce
policies convenient to the employees to reduce the rate of absenteeism in any company
including BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited. The term sickness absence if interpreted
literally stands for absence from work due to sickness. In other words, a disease proves to be
a problem of impaired ability to work. In other industries, it is also same, however, the work
is not interrelated.
Impaired work ability and disease are interrelated even though there are other factors,
which can affect the ability to work. The anomaly is not simple because work ability along
with health are continuous. Whereas, from the perspective of sickness absence management,
it is a differentiated concept that is, an employee is either present or absent. Furthermore,
considering these factors, sickness absence can also be termed as disability absence.
3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Research selected
Questionnaires are one of the most affordable and convenient methods of collecting
responses (Rowley 2014). The companies generally utilize this method of data collection
because this method does not incur expenses on the company depending on then ways of
administration. The method is immensely practical in nature because the questions are
usually open ended or multiple choice type. The conducting person or organizations get their
results at a considerably low amount of time. The scalability of the surveys is huge. It is

9Absence management in the food production sector
possible to gather information from a large number of audiences through this method.
Considering the advancement in technology today, the scale is only inflating. The analyses
are practical in nature and give realistic outcomes or predictions of outcome. This is because
the research is not based on assumptions but facts collected from actual people.
However, there are disadvantages of questionnaires too (Murgan 2015). The
respondents might not be completely honest while answering the questions. This influences
the research and drives it in the wrong direction. It is difficult to interpret the thought of the
respondent while researching using a questionnaire because often the questions are of
multiple choice types. In addition, some of the questions may even be hard to analyse. Open
ended questions for example cannot be quantified and requires a human review. Furthermore,
some questions those are open ended, produce data beyond the capacity of analysis. The
respondents may have a hidden agenda behind answering the questions. Their response is
bound to influence the research and can affect the analysis. In addition, the respondents often
skip questions while answering them. The skipping of questions often fail to generate the idea
of the analysis and can also result to incompletion in the data collection method which
eventually affects the direction and purpose of the analysis.
3.3 How could this be applied to BM Food Manufacturers Private Limited
Work stress was investigated and analysed by Cooper in his work stress model
(Sneddon, Mearns and Flin 2013). It is conferred here as an opinion to structure the
determining factors used in the current study. The work stress model of Cooper includes the
concept of various sources of stress in the environment. These sources of stress merge
together with the personal characteristics of the individual and lead to stress related
conclusion. These symptoms can be of ill health as a result of occupation and more possible
diseases. These sources of stress can be present at work environment or even in the interface
of home and work. This model by Cooper suggests individual symptoms along with

10Absence management in the food production sector
symptoms of the organization such as high absenteeism rates. These are contemplated to
affect the individual suffering from it. There are majorly two aims in the background of the
work stress model to understand stress at work. The first objective is to identify possible
adverse conditions of work and uplift the quality of working life of the employees. The
second aim is to classify individuals who are the best fits for the job role and its conditions of
work. The sources of stress at work involve factors inherent to the job, the role in the
organization, development of career, relationships at work and structure of the organization
and atmosphere. Along with this the cultural differences among the employees is also a
significant issue which the research is able to establish. The differences among the culture of
the employees is highly influential and is a major factor which leads to the stress of the
employees. The employees who are considered to be the outsiders of the culture are observed
to face significant issue in getting integrated to the employees of the host culture and that
creates significant issue in the effective team work. Along with this the generation of the
work stress is visible as the proper integration is not achievable and that creates significant
faults in case of the proper execution of their operations. Hence one of the most crucial factor
which has significant detrimental effects in the smooth conduction of the business operation
is the issue of cultural differences. Along with this, another important factor in the creation of
the job stress of the employees is the work time characteristics of the organizations. The
research is able to define that the professionals are usually subjected to significant amount of
stress generated from the inappropriate rewarding of their operations inside the organization.
The unsuitable policy of in cases of the rewarding of the overtime of the employees is
observed create significant amount job stress among the employees. Such factors elemental to
the job may involve demands physical in nature and the required task in the job. They may
encompass unsatisfactory conditions of work, overload of work, pressure of time or
responsibility for lives of others. To be more specific, physical demands and discomfort can

11Absence management in the food production sector
be caused by vibration and noise, extreme temperatures, lighting, factors of hygiene, shift of
work, load of work, overtime at work, inclusion of new technology, repetitiveness and
monotony, traversing and experience of various hazards and risk. These factors have the
potential to be agents of stress.
4. Proposed Presentation of Findings
Occupatio
n and
industry
Full-
time
wage
and
salary
workers
Total Illness
or
injury
Other
reasons Total
Illness
or
injury
Other
reasons
Food
preparation
and serving
related
occupations
4,443 3.2 2.2 0.9 1.5 1.1 0.4