Analyzing Employee Engagement Programs to Reduce Absenteeism at Tesco

This essay analyzes the issue of employee absenteeism at Tesco, a multinational grocery retailer, and explores the development of employee engagement programs as a solution. The essay identifies various causes of absenteeism, including stress, burnout, and low morale, and discusses the consequences such as reduced productivity and increased costs. It highlights the employee engagement strategies implemented by Tesco, such as clear attendance policies, flexible working options, and well-being initiatives. The essay emphasizes the benefits of these programs, including improved employee retention, productivity, and a decrease in absenteeism. The importance of creating a transparent and enjoyable working environment, including office parties, is also discussed. The conclusion reiterates the significance of employee engagement programs in reducing absenteeism and improving overall organizational performance.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
References:.......................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Absenteeism is defined as a term when an employee is frequently absent from work. Both
employer as well as employees are affected alike, due to the problem of absenteeism. It is
essential for the business organisation to develop employee engagement as it leads to
improvement in productivity (Grinza and Rycx, 2020). The chosen organisation for this essay is
Tesco which is a multinational grocery retailer having headquarter in Welwyn Garden City,
Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. This essay include the discussion on the idea of
programme of developing employee engagement at work place.
MAIN BODY
The management of Tesco is facing the problem or issue of absenteeism at work place. In
order to overcome from the problem, development of employee engagement programme is
consider as the best solution. There are several consequences of absenteeism at work place which
include reduction in the level of productivity, increase in the cost of administration, demotivating
morale among colleagues, difficulty in hiring temporary staff and many more. In simple words, it
can be said that the absenteeism leads to higher cost for the entire organisation. It is found as
crucial for the management of Tesco to identify the cause of such practices and then develop the
effective strategies which can improve the situation.
Several number of causes of absenteeism has been identified at the work place of Tesco
and some of them include bullying and harassment, stress and burnout, mental health problem,
low morale, bereavement, illness and many more. All of these are the actions or practices, which
affect the employees and they do not want to go for work (Saks, 2019). For the purpose of
overcoming from the problem this problem, it is found as crucial for the management to develop
the effective strategies or programmes which can avoid such causes.
There are various employee engagement programmes which are being developed by
management of Tesco and result in the improvement in the engagement of employees along with
decreasing the absenteeism. Some of the programmes or policies include creation of clear
attendance policy, rewarding good attendance, addressing unsanctioned absences quickly,
improvement in the well being of employees related to reduction of stress at work place, offering
options of flexible working and many more. These are the programmes or policies which leads to
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the development of employee engagement at work place along with bringing the improvement in
the productivity and profitability of overall organisation.
Development of employee engagement programmes, policies or strategies are found as
beneficial fro the entire organisation because it helps the management in gaining several
advantages from them. Tesco is also attaining several benefits from developing such
programmes at work place, which include improvement in employee retention, employee
productivity, increase in profitability, decrease burnout and improving mental wellness and
majorly reduction in the absenteeism (Sun and Bunchapattanasakda, 2019). Through a current
survey, it has been analysed that the problem of absenteeism can be caused because of less
interest of employees in the organisation because of their poor working environment. It state that
the work environment of Tesco require some adjustments related to the working environment of
organisation otherwise the problem of absenteeism will start highly impacting the performance
of overall organisation in negative manner. Major reason or focus of the development of
employee engagement programmes is employee retention and overcoming from the problem of
absenteeism. Higher the employee engagement result in the reduction of both turnover as well as
the cost of hiring of Tesco. Programmes or strategies of employee engagement plays an
important role in retaining the employees which is consider as the essential factor in providing
satisfaction to the employee (Young and et. al., 2021). Higher the satisfaction of employees
result in decrease in the ratio of absenteeism at work place. The introduction of employee
engagement programmes is the best decision of the management of Tesco as it help them in
reducing the level of absenteeism.
In addition to this, it has been also analysed that several employees do not enjoy their
work as they are not feeling appreciated at work place. Al through, it is crucial to provide job
satisfaction to the workers in order to gaining the success. It has been found that the development
of culture of transparency among the employees can be consider as the best manner of reducing
the absenteeism at work place (Verčič, 2021). Transparency at work place result in the clear
communication among among the management and employees result in bringing the enjoyment
at work place. It also develop effective relationship among all of them and employees enjoy to
work in such an interesting working environment which leads to the enhancement of overall
productivity of business firm. Tesco can also arrange some office parties as well, for the purpose
of connecting all employees from each other. It also help the management in enhancing the
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engagement of employees at work place. When the employees enjoy to work in company, they
show higher interest in going office daily and reduce absenteeism. Higher the employees come
in office leads to the higher involvement of employees in the organisational operations. It result
in the overall improvement in the productivity and profitability of business organisation. Hence,
it can be said that the development of employee engagement program leads to the reduction of
absenteeism.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it has been concluded that there are several consequences of
absenteeism of employees from their work which also result in decrease in productivity and
profitability of overall firm. It has been found as crucial for the management of business
organisations to focus on the programmes which leads to the development of employee
engagement at work place. It help the organisation in decreasing absenteeism and improving
employee engagement.
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References:
Books and Journals
Grinza, E. and Rycx, F., 2020. The impact of sickness absenteeism on firm productivity: new
evidence from Belgian matched employer–employee panel data. Industrial Relations: A
Journal of Economy and Society, 59(1), pp.150-194.
Saks, A.M., 2019. Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. Journal of
Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Sun, L. and Bunchapattanasakda, C., 2019. Employee engagement: A literature
review. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 9(1), pp.63-80.
Verčič, A.T., 2021. The impact of employee engagement, organisational support and employer
branding on internal communication satisfaction. Public Relations Review, 47(1),
p.102009.
Young and et. al., 2021. How does absenteeism impact the link between school's indoor
environmental quality and student performance?. Building and Environment, 203,
p.108053.
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