Absenteeism in the Workplace: A

Full Guide
Absenteeism in the workplace is a common phenomenon, costing the US economy $84
billion annually. Absenteeism, also referred to as a “bottom-line killer”, impacts the
availability of the workforce and the profitability of organizations. In this guide, we will
dive into what absenteeism is, common causes, its impact, and we end with 13 effective
absenteeism policies.

What is absenteeism? A definition

Let’s start with a definition of absenteeism in the workplace. Absenteeism is any failure
to report for or remain at work as scheduled, regardless of the reason (Cascio &
Boudreau, 2015). This is usually unplanned, for example, when someone falls ill, but
can also be planned, for example during a strike or willful absence. The key to this
definition is that the person was scheduled to work. This means that absenteeism does
not include vacation, personal leave, jury-duty leave, or other reasons. Commonly used
synonyms of absenteeism include absence, sickness, skipping, or taking leave.
Absenteeism in the workplace is most commonly measured using an absenteeism rate.
This rate is the number of absent days divided by the number of available workdays in a
given period. This absenteeism rate is a key HR indicator. For example, excessive
absenteeism can indicate problems within the workforce or organizational culture. 

The impact of absenteeism in the

workplace
Absenteeism can have a severe impact on the workplace. The Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that absenteeism in the U.S. costs employers
$225.8 billion annually in productivity losses. This is $1.685 per employee.

Research by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working

Conditions estimated that absenteeism could cost around 2.5% of GDP in Europe. This
would add up to a total cost of absenteeism of $470 billion in the European Union alone,
more than doubling that of the United States.
 

If we dive more into the numbers, we will find that the cost of absence not only includes
the cost of replacing the absent worker. It also includes productivity loss due to this
replacement, co-worker productivity loss, and supervisor productivity loss. 
An international survey by SHRM indicates that productivity loss in the U.S. ranges from
22.6% for planned absence to 36.6% for unplanned absence. The productivity loss for
the supervisor was 15.7%, and included tasks such as the administration of the
absenteeism, adjusting workflows, and taking over certain tasks. 

On the individual level, absenteeism may mean a loss of pay, absence discipline,
accidents may happen when the individual returns to a less familiar work situation, and
job perceptions may change as the employee may develop a reason or justification for
explaining their absence. Besides the individual, their co-workers, workgroup, the
organization, family and even society could be impacted.

An example of the impact of absence on society is, for example, nurses. Nurses work in
high-stress roles and often display a higher degree of absence compared to other roles.
This has a very tangible societal impact due to a decrease in the caretaking capacity.

The table below lists some of the negative consequences of Absenteeism on various people and
entities.
Group Negative consequences of Absence

Loss of pay
Discipline, formal and informal
Individual
Increased accidents
Altered job perception

Increased workload
Undesired overtime
Co-workers
Increased accidents
Conflict with absent worker

Increased coordination problems

Workgroup Decreased productivity
Increased accidents

Decreased productivity
Increased cost
Organizational management
More grievances
Increased accidents

Less earnings
Family Decline in work reputation
Aggravated marriage and child problems

Society Loss of productivity

Table based on Goodman & Atkin, 1984

Absence may also have a positive impact. The individual can rest and his or her stress
will be reduced. Co-workers experience more job variety and have the opportunity to
develop new skills, as well as receive overtime pay for their additional tasks. For
workgroups and organizations, the knowledge base is expanded and the unit becomes
more flexible in responding to absenteeism making the replacement of the absent
worker easier.

Absenteeism Benchmark
Let’s start with an absenteeism benchmark before diving into the different causes of
absence. Identifying these causes provides more information about the differences in
absence rates between countries – but they are interesting to display nonetheless. 
There is a lot of reliable absence data for the US and the EU. The absence rate in the
United States is 2.8%, while in the European Union the rate is around 4.7%. Workforce
absenteeism rates in Canada are 3.5% on average, with 3.1% in the private sector and
5.1% in the public sector (Conference Board of Canada, 2015).
Below you will find the absence rates per industry as reported by the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
INDUSTRY (United States | 2019) Absence rate

Private sector 2.7%

Agriculture and related industries 2.1%

Non-agricultural industries 2.7%

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 1.7%

Construction 2.4%

Manufacturing 2.5%

Durable goods 2.5%

Nondurable goods 2.5%

Wholesale and retail trade 2.8%

Wholesale trade 2.4%

Retail trade 3.0%

Transportation and utilities 2.8%

Transportation and warehousing 2.9%

Utilities 2.4%

Information 2.6%

Financial activities 2.4%

Finance and insurance 2.4%

Finance 2.2%
Insurance 2.7%

Real estate and rental and leasing 2.5%

Professional and business services 2.4%

Professional and technical services 2.1%

Management, administrative, and waste services 3.3%

Education and health services 3.3%

Educational services 2.6%

Health care and social assistance 3.5%

Leisure and hospitality 3.0%

Arts, entertainment, and recreation 2.9%

Accommodation and food services 3.0%

Accommodation 2.9%

Food services and drinking places 3.0%

Other services 2.7%

Other services, except private households 2.5%

Public sector 3.4%

Federal government 3.8%

State government 3.5%

Local government 3.1%

In the European Union, the absenteeism percentages are higher. This is based on the
latest available data of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO reports on the
number of absence days. We calculated these to a rate, assuming 251 working days per year,
which is the European average.
Country Absence rate Latest data
Austria 3.9% 2017

Belarus 4.5% 2017

Croatia 4.1% 2017

Czechia 6.1% 2016

Estonia 3.5% 2017

France 3.3% 2016

Germany 7.3% 2017

Hungary 3.3% 2016

Israel 1.5% 2017

Lithuania 4.1% 2016

Luxembourg 4.7% 2016

Netherlands 4.0% 2016

Norway 5.8% 2018

Poland 5.7% 2015

Slovakia 5.7% 2018

Slovenia 5.4% 2018

Spain 4.6% 2017

UK 1.6% 2017

Members of the EU 4.7% –

The data above provides a good overview of absenteeism in different geographies in

the Western world. There is a clear distinction between absenteeism rates in the United
States and Europe. The question that remains is: what would be a good absenteeism
rate? How low can we get absenteeism in our organizations? 

What is a good absenteeism rate?

To understand what a good absence rate is, we need to separate illness-related
absence from absence because of other reasons.

Illness-related absence is unavoidable. We will all get the flu every few years. When this
is the case, we have to stay home to get better. This means that although absence
behavior can differ among individuals, on an aggregated level we can easily spot if
absence in an organization is illness-related or related to other causes.

As a rule of thumb, 1.5% of aggregated absence is illness-related. This means that on

average 4 workdays per year are spent at home because of illness. This has been
found in work settings and school settings. For example, a 2012 study in the United
States showed that illness-related absence averaged at 1.24% from October to May,
while during influenza season it averaged 1.35%. Similar rates are shown in the graph
below. 
This graph shows the expected health-related Workplace Absenteeism based on historic data as
published by the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020).

Do keep in mind that this is an aggregated percentage. A person can have a higher
percentage because he or she had bad luck and caught bronchitis and be ill for two
weeks. However, when you have a large enough sample, 1.5% of absence is illness-
related.

As a result, everything above this 1.5% rule of thumb is likely because of reasons other
than illness. This can include personal issues, high levels of stress in a job, a bad
relationship with the direct manager, or other work conflicts. This does not mean that
this is the employee’s fault. It could be that the employee is stuck in a high-stress job
with little resources to do the job well. However, most of the absence above 1.5% are
preventable.

This means that as an organization, an average aggregated absence rate of well over
1.5% is cause for concern and should lead to targeted interventions, aimed at reducing
absence to more acceptable levels. This could be a job analysis and redesign to make a
job less stressful and more motivating, it could be a targeted intervention to promote
employee wellness or an analysis of stressors in the employee’s work-setting. 
In order to understand absenteeism better, let’s look at common causes of
absenteeism.

Causes of Excessive Absenteeism

Compensation for sick leave
When we look at the causes of excessive absenteeism in the workplace, there are a few
things that stand out. Let’s start by examining a country that has a very high
absenteeism rate, like Norway. A 2009 report showed that on a typical day in Norway,
an average of 6-7% of absence is reported. Here, workplaces in the 10th percentile of
the absence rate distribution had a rate of 3.1%, while workplaces in the 90 th percentile
had an absence rate of around 11%. 
Although this data is fairly dated and changes per year, a contributing factor is that in
Norway 100% of lost earnings due to absence are insured for the worker. A study on
Swedish data between 1955 and 1999 showed that more generous compensation for
sick leave tends to be associated with permanent increases in total sick leave per
person employed and the other way around (Henrekson & Persson, 2003). 

A study in a large Italian bank showed similar results. Workers at this bank were
protected against firing only after the twelfth week of tenure. The study showed that the
number of days of absence per week more than doubles once employment protection
was granted (Ichino et al., 2001).
Absenteeism and the economy: the opportunity cost of
not working
Interestingly, this effect may not only be caused by worker protection. A one percentage
point increase in a state’s unemployment rate is associated with a 0.54% reduction in
that state’s mortality rates. In line with this, smoking and obesity increase when the
economy strengthens, whereas physical activity is reduced and diet becomes less
healthy. Diets and exercise improve when the unemployment rate rises (Ruhm, 2000).
However, that does not mean that sickness will go up during times of economic growth.
A study in the United States showed an association between the unemployment rate
and absence. This is likely due to an increase in job demands during a worsening of the
economy, and a reduction of employee benefits, bonuses, and pay increases, as well as
safety and health monitoring (Shoss & Penney, 2012).
This research shows that absenteeism is a complex and multi-faceted problem. One of
the most interesting findings is that the higher the opportunity cost of not working, the
less likely people are to be absent. Even though hard work may make them live
unhealthier and more likely to die, a high cost of absence motivates them to go to work.

This effect also holds true on the micro-level, leading to several great absenteeism
interventions that we will discuss in the final section of this article.
Sex differences in absence
There are also sex differences in absence behavior. Rates of absence for women are
greater than those for men. This is both physiological as well as sociological. For
example, when kids are ill it’s oftentimes the mother who stays home to take care of
them. This leads to a higher absence frequency that usually doesn’t take that long.

Also, illness reasons are often different. Men suffer more from conditions in the neck
and head (otorhinolaryngological) while women suffer more from psychiatric illnesses,
including somatization and anxiety (Bermejo-Toro & Prieto-Ursúa, 2014).  
Substance abuse
Drinking and drug abuse is another driver for absenteeism. The U.S. 2008-2012
National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that workers who reported misuse of
prescription drugs were about 7% points more likely to report absent in the past month
(a 200-300% increase over average absence levels) and were absent for an additional
0.25 days. 
An Australian study among 13 582 workers found that high-risk drinkers were up to 22
times more likely to be absent from work compared to low-risk drinkers and also more
prone to be involved in accidents, injuries, and illness. With more than 40% of the
workforce consuming alcohol at risky levels and alcohol-related absence heavily
skewed among specific workforce subpopulations, it indicates scope for cost-effective
targeted interventions.
Diabetes
Diabetes rates all over the U.S. are rising. The cost of reduced productivity due to
diabetes was estimated to be $90 billion in the United States. This is up from $58
billion in 2007 and is only expected to increase. Lost productivity is shown through time
lost from work due to illness, presenteeism, or even early retirement. 
Depression
The impact of depression across the world is considerable. The annual prevalence of
depression in the U.S. was estimated at 9.66% with the average absence cost per
person at $390. However, the estimated cost of presenteeism for depression was much
higher, estimated at $5.524 (Evans-Lacko & Knapp, 2016).

Age
Age is another factor that influences absence. The older people are, the lower the
likelihood of avoidable absence. This decreases their frequency of absence. However,
with age the risk of chronic conditions increases leading to longer periods of absence.
13 effective absenteeism policies 
Based on the research we discussed earlier, several common causes impact
absenteeism. Interventions or HR policies that counteract these effects can be good at
minimizing the impact of absenteeism. 

The goal of many of these interventions is often to increase the opportunity cost of not
working. In general, the higher the cost of not working (i.e., having to go to a doctor to
get a health slip, asking colleagues to take over shifts, and so on), the lower the
absenteeism levels. This means that many of these can be highly effective in case of
excessive absenteeism. However, when it is at a minimum (< 2%) level, they will be
ineffective. In this case, you are already doing a great job at minimizing absence and
most of these interventions will not make a difference.

Here are thirteen effective HR absenteeism policies.

1. Washing hands significantly reduces absence during the influenza season. If

there is one thing we’re taking away from the Covid-19 pandemic it is that we should
wash our hands for 20 seconds. Although results are mixed during the normal season,
during the flu season, washing hands significantly reduces the rate of infections. Putting
up signs for people to wash their hands when they come into the office, after going to
the restroom, or before having lunch are easy but effective interventions.
2. Exercise frequency. A 2001 study showed that exercise frequency is negatively related to
absenteeism. People who did not exercise were 50% more likely to get sick for more than 7 days
during a given year than people who exercised three times a week. The details are displayed in
the table below. The same study showed that even exercising just once a week already lead to a
decrease of 30% in absence.
Weekly Exercise Frequency Odds ratio

0 1.50

1 1.15

2 1.00

3 1.00

The odds ratio shows that people who don’t exercise are 50% more likely to get sick for
more than 7 days in a given year than people who exercise two or three times a week.
Corporate wellness programs that are effective at getting people to exercise can,
therefore, be effective.
3. Workplace health promotion (WPH). WHP is aimed at preventing illnesses. When
effective, they reduce absence. These programs are especially effective among workers
who have similar conditions (e.g., an alcohol consumption reduction program among
blue-collar workers). An example are employee wellness programs.
4. Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAPs are aimed at the rehabilitation of
workers. These programs are absent intervention programs aimed at reducing absence
and improving health.

5. Health screening. Timely screenings for conditions like high blood pressure,

diabetes, and colorectal cancer can help to detect problems before they become
dangerous for employees. These screenings help employees to stay healthy and
reduce absenteeism.
6. Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) management. AOD policies are strategies to inhibit
drug abuse and often include written policies prohibiting the use of smoking, alcohol
and/or drugs at work. While these can be effective to reduce high-risk drinking, they
need to be more comprehensive to impact drug use. Notably, alcohol and drug testing
in isolation do not appear to be related to reduced employee substance use or
absenteeism. (Pidd, Kostadinov & Roche, 2015)
7. Drug testing. Mandatory drug testing is a commonly practiced policy in some areas
of the world. These offer a proven way to reduce absence abuse. Although often
unpopular, drug testing programs are in most cases cost-effective and reduce
absenteeism – often at the cost of employee morale.
8. Depression treatment. Enhanced care for chronic diseases, like depression, can be
highly effective. A 2004 study showed that patients in enhanced care reported 8.2%
greater productivity and 28.4% less absenteeism over 2 years, resulting in an annual
value of 2.601 USD per depressed full-time equivalent.
9. Creating commitment. Commitment to the organization and alignment with the
organizational goals leads to lower absenteeism. Building organizational commitment
and creating a shared vision that everybody is committed to, reduces absence.
10. Rescheduling responsibilities. Asking employees to reschedule their shifts
themselves is another way to decrease absence behavior. This means that employees
need to ask their colleagues to jump in and take over their shift, resulting in social
pressure to show up.
11. Absence verification. Implementing a system where any kind of absence needs to
be verified through medical documentation decreases absence. In the literature, this is
called absence culture. If 1 or 2 days of illegitimate absence are tacitly accepted as if
they were legitimate and unavoidable, they will become contagious (Gaziel, 2004).
12. Flexibility and autonomy. The degree of flexibility and autonomy that individual
employees have also impacts their absence behavior. Research has shown that a
higher degree of autonomy and flexibility in one’s work leads to lower absenteeism rate.
This can be explained by a higher sense of responsibility for the work and the flexibility
to plan around one’s ailment. In addition, restrictive behavior from the leader or
supervisor leads to more absence (Gaziel, 2004)
13. Absence insurance. Absence insurances are another way to reduce the cost of
absenteeism. Depending on the geography and local regulations, these can be effective
ways to reduce the cost of employee absenteeism in case it might go up significantly
due to disease, (workplace) accidents, or other causes.

Conclusion
This wraps up our guide on absenteeism in the workplace. There are many causes and
an equally large number of consequences of absence behavior. The key here is that
high absence almost never happens in isolation. Oftentimes, there are other
contributing factors, like a perception among workers of being ignored by management,
an unpleasant organizational culture, mismanagement, or other factors.

This means that absenteeism interventions are most successful if they are part of a
broader approach aimed at solving these issues. This means that these interventions
should never happen in isolation but should align with improvements of other HR
processes, including performance management, learning opportunities, and efforts to
improve engagement.
FAQ
What is absenteeism? A definition

Absenteeism is any failure to report for or remain at work as scheduled, regardless of

the reason. Absenteeism is usually unplanned, for example, when someone falls ill, but
can also be planned, for example during a strike or willful absence.

What causes employee absenteeism?

There are various factors that play a role when it comes to absenteeism in the
workplace. Think, for instance, of the absence culture, whether or not people get
compensation for sick leave, substance abuse, diabetes, and age.

How to reduce absenteeism in the workplace?

Absenteeism interventions are most successful if they are part of a broader approach
aimed at solving these issues. Health and absenteeism culture interventions should be
combined with improvements of other HR processes, including performance
management, learning opportunities, and efforts to improve engagement.