THESIS

CHAPTER 1

JING A. LIM
HRDM-4B
DR.BORRES
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction
Absenteeism in the call center is an issue with far reaching implications. Much time and effort is put into
the proper scheduling of call center agents to anticipate call volumes and deliver the level of service that
customers expect. When multiple agents are absent from work, for any reason, stress in the call center
can increase due to longer hold times for customers, increased call abandonment and heavier work loads
on everyone.

According to a call center study of over 2000 call centers the average number of sick days taken per year
per person was roughly 8.2 days, compared to an estimated 7.4 days for other industries. Beyond that, 40
percent of surveyed call center agents acknowledged that 45 percent of their sick time was used for
things other than illness.

The affect of increased absenteeism on the call center goes beyond the impact on the frontline
employees and customers. According to the Australian Call Centre Industry Study Benchmarking Report,
the Australian call center industry faces a loss of AUD 2.5 million per annum due to absenteeism.

So, if nearly half of call center employees call in sick for reasons other than illness, what motives are
driving this increased absenteeism in the industry? One contributing factor is the job design itself. The
requirements of the call center agent are such that they are often under considerable pressure to handle
so many calls per hour or day, follow a certain script when communicating with customers, overcoming
objections and possibly dealing with frustrated or even belligerent customers.

The human environment in the call center can also contribute greatly to the center’s level of absenteeism.
When surveyed regarding their top job motivating factors, call center agents reported that good relations
among co-workers as one of the top motivating characteristics of their jobs. If management is failing to
foster an environment where good relationships are built among co-workers, the agents can experience a
disconnect from their job, their supervisor and the organization.

When battling absenteeism in the call center, managers and supervisors should not ignore the benefits
that can be gained from increased monitoring. This is not to say that micromanaging will create a better
environment in the call center. Instead, proper monitoring provides coaching and training opportunities to
help the agent become more proficient in their job, creating a higher level of job satisfaction.

While absenteeism tends to be higher in the call center industry, it does not have to be considered the
norm. Management can take the necessary steps to design a fulfilling environment to create better job
satisfaction for their employees and thus reduce absenteeism and even employee turn over.

Workplace attendance and absenteeism are of fundamental importance to industrialised society.

Primarily, this appears most directly to affect those in industry as a cost of production, yet lost productivity
also affects the whole economy and society directly and indirectly. It adds to the cost, or may reduce the
quality, of public and private goods and services. At the workplace, it may place additional burdens on
employers and workers especially at critically important times, or in key processes. The business
environment has changed to the extent that now every area of economic performance is of importance to
achieve local and international competitiveness. Employee attendance at work, productivity and
organisational commitment have become critical components of human resource 7 performance. This is
changing, by necessity, the view that little can be done to influence the costs of absenteeism, and some
organisations are already making inroads in improving work attendance rates. The new industrial
environment means that opportunities may arise, through restructuring and enterprise bargaining, to alter
conditions of employment to better meet the needs of employers and employees. These can, and have
included, the management of workplace absence and sick leave. Work attendance and absenteeism are
linked to many factors, with the major, though not sole determinant, being disease-related incapacity.
Work attendance is generally considered to reflect the “complex person-work-enterprise-society
relationship”1 . These factors show marked variation between societies, industries, workplaces, work
groups and individuals. Not every factor has a significant influence in every case. In reality, few situations
and interpretations are straightforward. This complexity would appear to make it a difficult problem to
understand and manage and should serve as a caution against generalization. Yet there are some simple
concepts and basic principles which can assist employers, workers and their organizations in
understanding the causes and applying solutions. Employee attendance should not be viewed in isolation
from the workplace or the work environment. Collateral workplace indicators, such as employee turnover,
workers compensation claims rate and industrial disputation, can assist in forming a comprehensive
picture. Absenteeism, work delays and productivity decline are often the first signs of something wrong in
the workplace, and may precede events such accidents and injury. These first signs should receive more
attention by occupational health and safety professionals and management.2 Occupational physicians
should be knowledgeable about absenteeism. It is a key health and safety issue reflecting, in part, the
effects of work and the work environment. As physicians, it is expected that we see, assess, and treat
injuries and diseases. As part of this role we assess fitness to work and provide certification. The latter is
done to the benefit of the worker, to allow recovery and to provide time out when unwell; to the benefit of
other workers, industry and the public by maintaining a fit and productive workforce. Effective skills in this
area should allow the early return to productive work, maintenance of worker and workplace safety. This
may involve participation in solutions to complex individual problems within the workplace. Occupational
physicians are expected to have a broad knowledge of, and input into, improving work conditions, the
work environment, the health of industry and the workforce. It is this extension to the traditional medical
practice and knowledge base that differentiates occupational physicians from other medical practitioners.
It is the intent of this document to take a broad view of the causes and associations of workplace
absenteeism, and to describe various facets of its assessment and management. It is intended to provide
both an overview of models and systems and then progress to exploring solutions and detailed discussion
and is structured in sequence to take the reader through from concepts to management options.

Employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. Attrition simply means “A reduction in
the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death. ”Attrition can be conceptualized in
many forms; the two prominent forms of attrition for the constraints of this endeavor are attrition due to
employees leaving and employee retiring from an organization. Employee attrition is a chronic
disturbance that the HR department is exposed to. The recent times have witnessed a steep increment in
the employee turnover. It’s important to know whether their employees are dissatisfied or there any other
reasons for leaving the job. Before taking sudden action it is always wise to investigate into the root cause
of the issue. Employees today are eager to jump from one organization to other for a better opportunity
than ever has been true in the past. Employee attrition has become a crucial issue in most of the
organizations. Employee retention is the effort by employers to encourage current employees to remain
employed with the organization. It is better to retain the existing talent than to hire continuously. Retaining
good employees has always been an issue of utmost importance. Employees today are different. They
are not the ones who don’t have good opportunities in hand. Employees need to be retained because
good, faithful, trained and hard working employees are required to run business. They have acquired
good product knowledge over the long run and a trained employee can handle customers better and also
solve problems of peers who are new to the organization. A good employer should know how to attract
and retain its employees. It is one of the key challenges faced by chemical industries in India. It has been
observed that there is a great demand for skilled employees within India and abroad, which has resulted
in technocrats leaving the Organization in search of greener pastures.
BACKGROUND Of THE STUDY
The causes of absence are unlikely to be explained by any single factor, and current thinking sees its
causes in terms of multiple factors. Graham and Bennett (1995) believe that the factors contributing to
non-attendance include the nature of the job, personal characteristics of the worker and motivating
incentives. Up until the late 1970s, much of the research into absence focused on trying to find a single
factor to explain it If this were possible then employers would have been able to solve the problem. It is in
no way as easy as that, as Nicholson (1977) has identified. He splits absence into three categories.
Firstly, pain avoidance which puts forward the argument of job dissatisfaction which cannot be seen as a
single cause of absence, but without any doubt is one of a number of factors that influence absenteeism.
The second theory put forward is the adjustment to work. This argues that employees adapt to the
situation found in the workplace and that new employees will observe absence behaviour of their
colleagues. This raises many questions about the culture, management style, even the work conditions
and in the workplace. Another adjustment to work perspective sees absence in terms of an employees
response to both the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards found in the workplace, and is associated with the
equity and exchange theory Rhodes and Steers (1990). This argues that individuals expects a fair
exchange in what they bring to their jobs in terms of skill, knowledge and commitment and the rewards or
outcomes they get out of it. One must raise the question of whether these relate to intrinsic factors such
as job satisfaction, or extrinsic factors such as pay and benefits. If either falls short of employee’s
expectations they will go absent? The third theory sees absence as a result of a decision made on the
basis of the cost and benefit associated with absence. If the employee values a day off more day pay —
will they go absent? This does not explain why some employees are motivated to go to work while others
stay away. There has been research to support the view that the provision of occupational sick pay, which
reduces the economic cost of absence, leads to higher absenteeism. More recent research has tended to
emphasize the complex nature of the factors influencing absence, and is associated in particular with the
ideas of Nicholson (1977),

Steers and Rhodes (1978,1984) and Rhodes and Steers (1990). The implications of the earlier
research were that absence could be avoided as long as the cause was identified and the appropriate
policies applied.

Steers and Rhodes (1984) argue that absence behaviour needs to take into account variations in the
personal characteristics, attitudes, value and backgrounds of individuals and the fact that people do
become genuinely ill and have domestic difficulties from time to time.

Nicholson (1977) in his model of attendance motivation believes that attendance is normal behaviour,
and that to search for a cause of absence for the factors that disturb the regularity of attendance. Whether
people will attend given a particular set of circumstance depends on a number of variables such as age,
sex, gender, work conditions, group cohesion etc.

Steers and Rhodes (1978) suggest in their model of absenteeism, that job satisfaction and pressure to
attend work interact to determine attendance and motivation. Actual attendance will depend on both
motivation and ability to attend; pressure to attend could come from the fear of losing their job. There are
of course other influences on why people go absent. The nature of their jobs, the opportunities they
provide for satisfaction and involvement, are all key factors. The rules in the workplace may be strict or
lenient, even travel difficulties may affect the ability to attend.

To date there appears to be little agreement on the factors which influence an employee’s decision on
whether to attend or not attend work. Sargent Andrew (1989). ‘The Missing Workforce, (Managing
Absenteeism), London Institute of Personnel Management, argues that this is due mainly to firms not
properly monitoring their absence levels, and causes, and often by reluctance amongst management to
admit they have a problem. This, he states, arises from the fact that once a problem is identified, there
will be pressure on management to correct it.
As defined by IBEC (1999):

“Absence is a natural and expected phenomenon in every organization. It is provided for in statute and
accommodated in work schedules by adequate planning and notification procedures. Absence includes;
annual leave, public holidays, maternity leave and jury duty. In short, absence is when employees are
scheduled to be at work, either by legislation or contract o f employment, www.ibec.ie

While absence is a normal and necessary part of working life, IBEC have defined Absenteeism as 11 Lost
days which disrupt the work process and hinder the productivity capacity of the organization.
Absenteeism is the unscheduled disruption of the work process due to days lost as a result of sickness or
any other non-statutory leave ” IBEC’s 1997 survey entitled “Ireland’s Missing Workforce ” was compared
to a similar study conducted by IBEC in 1992 and some comparisons noted included; Changes in
absence rates - 38% of companies stated that absenteeism levels had remained unchanged over the last
five years.

How rates have changed

– 50% of companies had noted a decrease in the level of absenteeism over the past five years.
Concerns for the problem

– 66% of companies did not view absenteeism as a cause for concern. Absenteeism is a nuisance in the
workplace and also represents a severe and unnecessary cost to productivity. The most obvious cost is
that of company sick pay schemes, but there are many other quantifiable indirect costs. The absent
worker must be replaced; there may be a need to employ a surplus of staff to maintain production and
service levels.

In addition, management’s time is taken up with re-organizing schedules and trying to find means of
running the business with a reduced workforce. Depending on the time of year, absenteeism combined
with holiday leave and other authorized leave can wreak havoc on the organization. Departments are left
short-staff causing frustration and stress among the remaining employees and management. On top of all
this a proliferation of absenteeism generates an “absence mentality” and an environment where taking
intermittent days off is regarded as acceptable. “ The main causes of absenteeism are illness-related
such as backache, stomach pains, and influenza. However there are many other occasions when
employees claim to be suffering from various illnesses, when in fact they have simply chosen to opt out of
work rather than opting in Mowday et al, 1982

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. “ABSENTEEISM” is one of the great disasters faced by all the organizations in this
modernized world which results in turnover. So the firm has to reinvest so many amounts.
People not only used to leave the organizations due to the personal reasons, the main reason is all
about the industrial environmental factors
“ABSENTEEISM” not only indicates the physical presence it starts with the “Mental
absence” of an individual so the firm has to take this as a important issue before initiating any
remedial actions through that and along with the participative management.
All the textile industry is facing a significant problem on employee’s regular attendance.
There are so many factors that influence employees to take leave. This study ensures that it will
reveal a clear good result for the absence. Due to absence of employees, the management is in
compulsion to give target production. Generally, the textile industry is facing a tight competition
all over the world. So the TEXTILE industry should have to take necessary steps and this also
helps the management to know about the employee’s basic needs which are not fulfilled and
what the employee’s expectation.
 2. Attrition is a critical issue and pretty high in the industry these days. It’s the major problem
which highlights in all the organizations. Though the term ‘ATTRITION’ is common, many would be at a
loss to define what actually Attrition is, “Attrition is said to be the gradual reduction in the number of
employees through retirement, resignation or death. It can also be said as Employee Turnover or
Employee Defection” Whenever a well-trained and well-adapted employee leaves the organization, it
creates a vacuum. So, the organization loses key skills, knowledge and business relationships. Modern
managers and personnel administrators are greatly interested in reducing Attrition in the organization, in
such a way that it will contribute to the maximum effectiveness, growth, and progress of the organization.
Retaining employees is a critical and ongoing effort. One of the biggest challenges in having
managers in the place that understands it is their responsibility to create and sustain an
environment that fosters retention. Staff requires reinforcement, direction and recognition to
grow and remain satisfied in their positions. Managers must recognize this and understand that
establishing such fundamentals demonstrates their objectives to support nature and motivate
their employees. This study is an outcome of the topic called “A Study on Employee Attrition and
Retention in Manufacturing Industries in Nellore District, Andhra Pradesh”. The main objectives of this
study is to know the reasons, why attrition occurs, to identify the factors which make employees
dissatisfy, to know the satisfactory level of employees towards their job and working conditions
and to find the areas where manufacturing industries in Nellore District is lagging behind.

HYPOTHESIS

H1: There is a significant relation between age and attrition factors of the employees.
H2: There is a significant relation between educational qualification and attrition factors of the employees
H3: There is a significant relation between experience and attrition factors of the employees.
H4: There is a significant relation between age and motivational factors relating to employee retention.
H5: There is a significant relation between educational qualification vs motivational factors relating to
employee retention.
H6: There is a significant relation between experience vs motivational factors relating to employee
retention