How Much Is Employee Absenteeism Costing You?

Question: If Mike and Melissa both work in food service in the same nursing home and Mike slips on a wet floor and is out with an injured back for the next five days, what is the cost to your business?Answer: More than you think.Employee absenteeism costs U.S. businesses billions of dollars each year. While most people assume the dollar loss comes from medical claims such as workers compensation, there are also costs associated with:

• Low Morale. Melissa is not happy she has to pick up the extra work created by Mike being out.
• Poor Quality of Work. Melissas work suffers as she tries to do both jobs.
• Increased Management Time. Melissas and Mikes boss tries to make sure all tasks get managed with Mike out, ensure Melissa stays focused and engaged and is checking with Mike on workers comp and when he might return to work.
• Bad Feelings. Mike resents the fact that he slipped on a wet floor received an injury, especially after hed made several earlier complaints about the floor being slick.

When it comes to lost days at work due to slips, trips or falls, the average worker spends more days off work (an average of 9 days) than those injured from other causes. Itsreported that in nearly one-third of slip, trip and fall cases, a worker may be off work more than 21 days.Slip resistant shoes wont solve every problem but they can and do reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls leading to workplace absenteeism. Every potential slip that doesnt occur is money earned for your business.As far as lost workdays due to people calling in sick on a Friday before a long weekend, we cant help you there. We havent made a shoe (yet) to solve that.