Impact of Employee Engagement Initiatives on Reducing Absenteeism

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the relationship between employee engagement and worker absenteeism. It highlights the importance of employee engagement programs in fostering a positive work environment, boosting employee motivation, and ultimately reducing absenteeism. The essay discusses both the positive and negative aspects of employee engagement initiatives, including the potential for burnout, and emphasizes the need for tailored programs that consider the specific needs and workload of employees. It concludes that engaged employees are less likely to be absent, leading to increased productivity, improved customer service, and enhanced profitability for the company. The essay references relevant books and journals to support its arguments and offers insights into how companies can effectively address absenteeism through strategic employee engagement.

Essay

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Employee engagement initiatives are very crucial as well as critical for a firm as it can help
a company to gain an upper hand in the market and thus each and every firm uses it in some or
the other form so that it can help in the overall growth and development of the company
(Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016). In this essay there is a detailed overview of the topic which is
related with the firms that are increasing the use of various employee engagement works so that
they can reduce the absenteeism that is current scenario of the company.
MAIN BODY
Worker absence is a word which defines whenever company workers are unavailable for a
variety of causes, both scheduled and unexpected. Yearly leaves, compensated days off,
holidays, employee training lapses, and scheduled health procedures are all examples of
scheduled absenteeism. Emergency and short-term leaves due to pressure, sickness, accident, or
family concerns are examples of unexpected unavailability. Most of our life takes place in our
work where we realize ourselves as professionals and develop our potential. So that’s mean
almost everyone has a desire to improve, to rise in the hierarchy or just to participate in
additional training (Flammer and Luo, 2017). Globally only 13% of employers feel engaged in
the workplace and its means that the remaining 87% of employees are not engaged. It seems that
there is a serious problem in this area. Employee engagement is a concern today for many
employers in various companies from the smallest to the most successful worldwide. Three
quarters of people who leave work do because of their not good relationship with the manager.
The relationship between manager and employee is the most important for the engagement and
can be improved by: mentoring by the manager, regular feedback by the manager or proving
opportunities for development. This is the first factor for employee motivation. The second
factor is the individual characteristics of the employees; third factor is the collective relationship
and fourth is the payment of employees. The employee engagement programs will positively
affect these motivation factors. The main positive aspects of the employee engagement program
is that when employers are engaged good business results and customer service can be achieved
so that it can results can add to the value of the firm in the long run. Also high engagement and
stimulating work environment are the main prerequisites for achieving successful business
development in the current market scenario. Additionally to what extent employees are engaged

to the company’s business and their actions contribute to the improvement of the company’s
results as a whole. Moreover high employee engagement equals less absenteeism, less turnover,
less theft and defects can help a firm achieve a strategic edge over other competitors that are also
operational in the similar business scenario as the market is highly competitive and dynamic in
nature and it will subsequently add more safety, more profitability and better quality to the
business in the long run and thus resulting in happier customers (Knight, Patterson and Dawson,
2017). Companies with better levels of employee engagement outperform competitors in every
area. If the main goal is to stop absenteeism, this can definitely be achieved quite effectively by
engaging in employee engagement programs. Also, the employee will feel belonging to the
organization in which he works and will not feel like a stranger or a person left alone in a group
of employees. Among the most common reasons of increasing absenteeism include health-
linked difficulties which have a negative influence on production and attendance patterns,
culminating in significant organisational, societal, and economical consequences. Apart from
that there are some negative aspects of the employee engagement programs and the most
common one is burnout as extreme mental and physical exhaustion of employees in large
companies result in it and thus it results in lower productivity and thus it will impact the market
reputation and image of the firm in the industry in which it operates. Also inaccurate assessment
of when to run the program according to the total workload of the company adds to this scenario.
Definitely investing in employee engagement programs will be rewarded and will benefit the
company. The main idea is to maintain the ability to work, to keep the spirit cheerful of the
person, and that employees cannot lose their work habits. As a result of everything so far I can
say that the employee engagement in the company is an appropriate tool for increasing
productivity and revenue of the company. I think the idea is good if it is tailored to the specific
situation of the company employees and the time in which it will take place (Larasati and
Hasanati, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above that worker absenteeism is a multifaceted and
complicated phenomena which represents a person's choice to not show up for job. Worker
absenteeism may be reduced with the help of engaged workers, and supervisors can gain from
recognizing and studying the tactics utilised to attain reduced absenteeism rates. Employers that
do not comprehend and execute methods to decrease worker absenteeism risk incurring large

monetary damages. Apart from that it can be said that there are a number of methods that can be
used so that the issue can be look after which can help the company to resolve this major concern
which when addressed properly will lead to increased growth and development in the long run
scenario.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Karatepe, O.M. and Olugbade, O.A., 2016. The mediating role of work engagement in the
relationship between high-performance work practices and job outcomes of employees
in Nigeria. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Flammer, C. and Luo, J., 2017. Corporate social responsibility as an employee governance tool:
Evidence from a quasi‐experiment. Strategic Management Journal, 38(2), pp.163-183.
Knight, C., Patterson, M. and Dawson, J., 2017. Building work engagement: A systematic review
and meta‐analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions.
Journal of organizational behavior, 38(6), pp.792-812.
Larasati, D.P. and Hasanati, N., 2019, March. The effects of work-life balance towards employee
engagement in millennial generation. In 4th ASEAN Conference on Psychology,
Counselling, and Humanities (ACPCH 2018) (pp. 390-394). Atlantis Press.