Employee Engagement Programs: An Analysis of Staff Absenteeism

This essay explores the role of employee engagement programs in minimizing staff absenteeism. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these programs, drawing upon research and established theories like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The essay highlights how motivated and engaged employees are less likely to be absent, emphasizing the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While employee engagement programs can significantly reduce absenteeism by fostering commitment and addressing employee needs, potential drawbacks include understaffing, increased workload for present employees, and potential pay check issues. The essay concludes that effective management of employee engagement is crucial for addressing absenteeism and maintaining a productive work environment.

Employee engagement
programs- Essay

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Employee engagement refers to the level of enthusiasm as well as dedication that is felt
by a worker towards their job. It can be typical to a success of company but enhances the morale
and job satisfaction of employees within the organisation. Within this assignment, an essay is
going to be presented that is related to the concept of absenteeism (Afsar, Al‐Ghazali and
Umrani, 2020). This essay also includes the advantages and disadvantages of the employee
engagement programmes in minimising the staff absenteeism. There will be a discussion on the
positive and negative arguments of the programs related to employee engagement on the basis of
a research and conclusions will be drawn from it.
MAIN BODY
A popular personality Richard Branson who is a business entrepreneur of Britain has
expressed that employees come first and is an organisation will take care of its workers then
employees will take care of the organisation. It has also been claimed by The Chartered
Management Institute (2015) that human resources are favourably involved towards work give
better performance and are actually more productive. The interest within the concept of
employee engagement or involvement has been grown since the past years and has also been
reinforced by the force of recent recession of economy. In such circumstances, making optimum
utilisation of the employees and their skills as well as experiences along with keeping them
happy and feel them valued is very crucial within an organisation (Employee engagement, 2022).
Absenteeism refers to a situation when a worker is frequently and habitually absent from
the work. It excludes occasions and paid leaves wherein a manager has granted a subordinate
time off. Employee engagement programs are considered as a significant as well as effective tool
in minimising the absenteeism of the employees towards the work. In order to understand the
relationship between absenteeism and employee engagement, the motivation to employees is a
key factor that is required to be consider. Psychologist Abraham Maslow 1940s has first
developed the motivational theory and stated that an individual has a hierarchy of needs which
are required to be satisfied from the basic needs before going to the top level needs such as self-
actualisation as well as self-esteem (Chaudhary and Akhouri, 2018). The Chartered Institute of
Personal and Development (2016) has also claimed that the concept of absenteeism has
contributed great losses for the businesses. This is also estimated that the absenteeism cost will

be approximately £557 per worker in a year. The aspect of motivation operates in two ways
within a business and these approaches include intrinsic motivation as well as extrinsic
motivation. The concept of intrinsic motivation consists of responsibility, scope to use, freedom
to act and develop skills as well as abilities. The concept of extrinsic motivation is concerned
with what should be done in order to motivate the human resources of an organisation so that
they can do more hard work and involves promotion, increased pay or praise.
There are some of the advantages of the employee engagement programs that facilitate an
organisation in minimising the employee absenteeism (Pandita and Ray, 2018). These programs
will relate to the way of research which has shown that 50% with lower term of security happen
in the great involvement in the business management. If an organisation will include the concept
of business management then it will tend to show greater respect for the needs of employees and
their motivation through considering effective affection in terms of their health. Organising the
programs within business management that are sponsoring road races can be effective approach
to reduce absenteeism. By conducting employee engagement programs, human resources of an
organisation will get effectively committed towards the business and will not take leaves. It will
also be helpful in managing the business in an effective manner within greater level of intention
to achieve higher level of productivity and profitability within business. In context to this, the
employees who are highly engaged and involved in the management of a business seek 40%
absenteeism within the organisation.
Each organisation is different by nature but the concept of absenteeism is the most
common problem within the workplace as it not only impacts the single person but also observed
as an issue of management. The aspect of absenteeism is expensive for a company and can result
in going out of control if it is not addressed in a proper and effective manner. If the employees of
the organisation love what they do and where they do it, then in that case they will not take the
leaves for no reason or without consulting firstly to their managers. The subordinates within a
business should trust their superiors that they will give time off when the employees of the
organisation require it. The situation of absenteeism appears when the workers are not satisfied
to their work as well as team (Rupp and et.al., 2018). Therefore, they may take the benefits of
specific situations and leave the task without much consideration. The improvement in the
process of employee engagement can alone bring 41% of minimising the absenteeism within the
workplace. However, there are some disadvantages of employee engagement also in reducing the

absenteeism within the organisation. Human resources within the workplace are often left
understaffed within the winners of management at the time when employees begin to create over
unexcused absence. This will present the liability of the employees within the structure of extra
cost of label that reduces the productivity by having less workers missed in the working hours of
the business. This will also facilitate in raising the burden on the other employees within the
workplace and due to which, they feel dissatisfied and left the organisation (Stone, Cox and
Gavin, 2020). Apart from it, for the faculty of employees, they have low terns of pay checks as
well as tend to lose the ethics and values among the human resources of the business
management. The employees will try to get continue with their schedule of absence and will be
the most appropriate section of responsibilities and roles through losing their specific job roles
within a defined time period.
CONCLUSION
From above explanation, it has been concluded that every business organisation has its
own criteria of functioning its role in a set defined period at the time of protocols to manage
various operations through managing crisis that includes issues of employee absenteeism. This
essay has been included the courses that provided space for understanding the employees on their
absence in an effective manner. The workers who are not involved in the management of
operations with a specific way with their task will lead to sometimes job dissatisfaction.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Afsar, B., Al‐Ghazali, B. and Umrani, W., 2020. Retracted: Corporate social responsibility, work
meaningfulness, and employee engagement: The joint moderating effects of incremental
moral belief and moral identity centrality. Corporate Social Responsibility and
Environmental Management. 27(3). pp.1264-1278.
Chaudhary, R. and Akhouri, A., 2018. CSR perceptions and employee creativity: Examining
serial mediation effects of meaningfulness and work engagement. Social Responsibility
Journal.
Pandita, D. and Ray, S., 2018. Talent management and employee engagement–a meta-analysis of
their impact on talent retention. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Rupp and et.al., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: The
moderating role of CSR‐specific relative autonomy and individualism. Journal of
Organizational Behavior. 39(5). pp.559-579.
Stone, R. J., Cox, A. and Gavin, M., 2020. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Employee engagement, 2022[Online] Available Through:https://www.headspacegroup.co.uk/sir-
richard-branson-employees-come first/#:~:text=Employees%20come%20first.,his
%20philosophy%20to%20be%20correct.