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Absenteeism in South Africa is decreasing
Statistical software company Absenteeism Management Solutions (CAMS) announced today that sick absenteeism in a sample of more than 170 000 employees in the sample companies has decreased in the last year by 30%, bringing down the average cost sick absenteeism in South African companies by R120 million. In 2006, the average absenteeism rate per employee was 2.36%, which means that each employee in the sample took an average of 5.7 days per year. In the 2007 cycle the absenteeism rate was 1.67% which means that every employee took an average of 4.1 sick absenteeism days in this year.
Chief Executive of CAMS, Johnny Johnson says, "Absenteeism is, in all probability, the single biggest cause of lost time and poor productivity that this country faces. Last year, we calculated that across the economy, it is probable that the minimum cost of absenteeism, measured as a direct cost only, was about R19 billion. This year, because of the tighter controls, benchmarking and analysis of sick absenteeism in the 76 companies who are tracking their sick absenteeism by means of our Absolv software, the cost of sick absenteeism has come down by R120 million."
Johnson says that by analysing their own absenteeism information and comparing this to national norms, individual employers are in a very powerful position to manage absenteeism, and by reducing it, to make commensurate improvements in costs and in productivity. This decreased sick absenteeism figure proves that analysing and benchmarking sick absenteeism helps to reduce it.
"The bulk of sick leave abuse, as well as the greatest benefit of savings for the employer, lies in dealing with the short term absenteeism, which reduced by 12% from 2006 to 2007 in this sample. The disruptive effects of short-term absence are far more acute than longer-term absence," Johnson says.
Johnson says that longer-term incapacity is a relatively less frequent occurrence, but at around one case in five, is still worthy of management attention, although it does bring a different approach into focus.
He says that with regards to devising a national norm for absenteeism it should be noted there are wide variances between public and private sector, size of firm, age and gender profile of the labour force, and the nature of the work that they do.
"Even under these circumstances, it is still important to devise a single figure to represent so many possible variations because it gives us an estimate of which direction we are moving in from year to year, we can estimate the national cost of absenteeism and this allows us to make comparisons.
"Such a figure is of great value to employers, who can also see, at a glance how they stand in relation to the national average.
Johnson says that on the positive side, the regular abuse of sick leave is usually limited to a small number of employees, who abuse it regularly, and in patterns which are readily discernible.
He adds, "So employers who decide to tackle the problem by means of analysis and benchmarking and then taking the necessary action will make significant inroads in reducing the costs of sick absenteeism." |
