IFP Business: Employee Engagement Programs for Absenteeism Reduction

This essay discusses the role of employee engagement programs in reducing absenteeism. It highlights that unscheduled absences impact both the employee and the employer, emphasizing that engagement programs are essential for identifying factors influencing employee behavior and addressing pain points. Key elements of effective programs include establishing core values, prioritizing employee feedback, focusing on employee health, and recognizing top performers. The essay concludes that engagement programs not only reduce absenteeism but also improve work culture, enhance employee experiences, increase retention, and foster loyalty, ultimately leading to better customer service and organizational growth. Effective leadership and transparent communication are also crucial for successful implementation.

International
Foundation Programme
(Business) Study Skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Employee absenteeism refers to frequent absence of the employees from their
designated work roles. This absence in works is defined as a habitual absences which
excludes provided leaves or paid time-off by an organisation to its employees. The
companies are aware that their employees require frequent time-off from work in order
to be motived along with reducing changes of burn-out due to stress from work.
Although increase in frequent days off become an issues for an organisation and is
absenteeism. The following essay will discuss efforts of companies to reduce
absenteeism through effective employment engagement programmes along with is
impact.
MAIN BODY
The issue of unscheduled absence from work has an impact on both the
employee as well as the employee as the companies are often encounter the issue of
being understaffed in their workplace when employee take excessive unexcused
absences. Where as for the employees these absences result in lose relative to their
vale as a valuable member of the organisation and can also lead to them loosing their
position in the company (Ekin, 2019).
This makes development of employment engagement programmes and essential
and ideal tool from both the employer and employees. It will enable the companies to
effectively identify the key factors that influence employees behaviours, determine the
pain points of employees which will assist in reducing the employees absence rate. In
order to develop an effective employee engagement programme it is crucial for
companies to establish and develop its core values and mission in an effective
manner as it will ensure that employees understand the importance of company values
(Hodges, 2018). This will have a positive impact on the issue of absenteeism as
employee will be motive to work knowing what they have to achieve in the organisation.
Moreover, in order to develop an effective employee engagement programme the
companies have to prioritize the feedback of employees. This will allow the
management of the companies to better understand the needs of their employees such
as health and safety along with various essential needs (Lee and et. al., 2021). The
evaluation and prioritizing of employee feedback will allow companies to reduce
employment absenteeism as they will be motived relative to they work knowing all their
needs are being met. In addition to this the companies have to focus on the overall
prioritize the physical and mental health of their employees as it is vital for the
employees to be satisfied relative to their health in order to be present at work during
their work-days. Furthermore, it is important for companies to recognize top
performing employee of their company and offer they rewards for their work (Mobley,
2020). This aspect of employee engagement programme will ensure employees are
present at work as they are motived and driven by the expectation of receiving desire
rewards for their performance.
The idea of companies developing employment engagement programmes is
effective as it involve various benefits that play a crucial role in reducing employee
absenteeism. The development of employee engagement programme will allow the
management to understand and uncover specify weakness of individual employees.
This will enable the management to help their employees and provide them assistance

to eliminate their weakness. This results in higher level of confidence in employees
leading to them being motived to work, reducing their rate of absence. In addition to
this, the programme ensure that the employees are satisfied and happy with their
working environment resulting in further assistance in reduction of absenteeism. This
higher level of satisfaction through effective employment engagement programme also
ensure that companies are able to increase the rate of retention of their employees
(Ogunleye, 2020). This is caused due to employees being motived to work for the
organisations. The higher rate of retention also introduces the aspect of employees
loyal towards their respective company. If the employees are highly satisfied and
motived it will ensure in reduced absenteeism along with increase in employee loyalty
and retention. This overall improvement in employees motivation and satisfaction allows
them to be present at work and perform their roles and duties with high-level of
performance. This aspect allows companies to provide better customer service to
their customers as well. It is vital for the companies to have good leadership within
their organisation as well. The effective leadership ensure that the introduction of
employee engagement programme is received positively among employees (Richardsen,
2019). In addition to this, the leaders of the companies need to establish clear and
transparent communication channels as it will allow the employees to provide valuable
feedback relative to what issues they encounter and what changes they would like to
be made in order to be motivated. This effective listening to employees feedback
reduces the absenteeism rate as the feeling of belongingness in instilled with them
regarding their organisations. Furthermore, the leaders are able to proved employees
with enhanced professional growth as well through the optimal utilization of
employment engagement programme. This enchantment in employees professional
development enables the employee to look forward towards growth and higher positions
in their organisation (Wirtenberg and et. al., 2018). This results in them being motived to
work reducing the absence rate.
The implementation and development of employee engagement programmes is
vital for the companies if they are facing the issues relative to employee absenteeism.
The programme ensures that the companies not only gain the benefit of reducing the
absence rate of their employees but gain other valuable aspects as well which are
essential for the growth and development of these companies.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it has been concluded that, it is crucial for companies to
develop an effective and structure employee engagement programme as it will allow
them to not only reduce rate of absenteeism but also improve employees experiences
in the organisation. Moreover, the idea of employee engagement programmes is vital
for companies as it enables them to enhance their overall work culture along with
improving their value relative to shareholders. In addition to this the programmes assist
companies to understand perspective of their employees relative to work and develop
suitable strategies to solve any issues that they may encounter.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Ekin, G. T., 2019. The Relationship Between Organizational Transparency and Employee
Engagement (Doctoral dissertation, Marmara Universitesi (Turkey)).
Hodges, J., 2018. Employee engagement for organizational change: the theory and practice of
stakeholder engagement.
Lee and et. al., 2021. Exploring the interrelationship and roles of employee–organization
relationship outcomes between symmetrical internal communication and employee job
engagement. Corporate Communications: An International Journal.
Mobley, D. M., 2020. Motivation Toward Employee Engagement in the Public Sector: A
Systematic Review of the Evidence (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland
University College).
Nicholas, R. C. E., 2020. Leadership and Employee Engagement: The Lived Experience of
Leaders in Large Public Institutions (Doctoral dissertation, Saint Leo University).
Ogunleye, M. T., 2020. Relationship between Employee Engagement, Job Satisfaction, Career
Satisfaction, Turnover Intention and Organizational Commitment amongst Professional
Engineers Employees (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University).
Richardsen, A. M., 2019. Work engagement: increasing employee well-being and organizational
effectiveness. In Creating psychologically healthy workplaces. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wirtenberg and et. al., 2018. Employee engagement for a sustainable enterprise. In The
Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook (pp. 221-252). Routledge.