Dr. Jerry Osteryoung Executive Director of the Jim Moran Institute for  Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University

{sidebar id=1}Employers worry a lot about absenteeism, but new research suggests a bigger threat to productivity is "presenteeism": sick workers who show up at work but are not fully functioning.  U.S. companies may lose $150 billion (yes, that's billion) annually because of presenteeism, according to some estimates.  ~Harvard Business Review

“Presenteeism” is a newly coined word that refers to the loss of productivity that results when a worker shows up to work and is not fully engaged.  Whether due to illness, distraction, or even burn-out or depression, presenteeism amounts to workers who are physically present, but mentally elsewhere.

According to one study, the loss in productivity from employees who came to work while ill was significantly higher than in those who were absent, and the cost was three times higher.  When workers go to work ill, it tends to affect the entire workforce.  Nearly $100,000 in labor costs could have been saved had the employee just stayed home.

International Truck tackled this problem head on with a pilot study of employees who had allergy problems.  They instituted a study of their employees and found that 20-25% of their staff suffered from allergies.  Their findings also showed that these allergies had a significant impact on each worker’s performance.  International Truck was able to help the employees find the assistance they needed, and the employees were grateful for the company’s help.  They felt so much better, and as a result, they were much more productive.

One common problem is that workers come in either to avoid letting their team down, or because they are worried about losing their paid time off (PTO).  The PTO approach lumps both sick leave and vacation into one pot with a specified number of days.  If an employee does not use any days of sick leave, they have the option to take a very long vacation.

I used to be in favor of PTO.  It seemed like a neat concept. With this approach, employers never had to decide whether an employee had a legitimate illness.  However, like many “neat concepts” the unintended consequences are quite high.  PTO inadvertently encourages workers to go to work while sick in order to save their PTO for vacation.

One of the most common ways to address presenteeism is by instituting a corporate wellness program.  These programs are designed to help employees stay healthy using both treatment and education.  In Leon County, a program called “Working Well Leon County” is aimed at improving the health of workers throughout the entire county.

You can also reduce the amount of presenteeism by allowing sick leave to carry over from one year to the next.  Additionally, helping the employee cover their physician co-payments encourages them to go to the doctor when they are not feeling well.  You also may consider helping them cover some of their prescription costs.  As an example, flu shots should be provided free-of-charge as not providing them can have such a major impact.

Presenteeism can also be caused by just plain boredom on the job.  Cross training and periodically changing job assignments really helps here.  Keeping the workplace fun and dynamic really does help to increase productivity and combat presenteeism.

Now go out and make sure that you have a plan to reduce presenteeism.  You will find that this is not only good for your employees.  It is just plain good business.

You can do this!

Jerry Osteryoung is the Jim Moran Professor of Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at Florida State University.  He is also the Director of the Entrepreneurship Program at FSU and Executive Director of the Jim Moran Institute of Global Entrepreneurship.  He can be reached by e-mail at jostery@comcast.net or by phone at 850-644-3372.

This article originally published on November 5, 2007.

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

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