Presenteeism In the Workplace
Presenteeism In the Workplace
You wake up and immediately notice that your nose is congested, your eyes and throat are itchy. Great, your allergies are back! You know it’s going to be a tough day at work, carrying around all those symptoms, but you have a ton of work to finish before the end of the week. So you drag yourself out of bed despite how you feel and get to the office. You sit at your desk feeling miserable struggling to see your computer screen through watery eyes. You end the day not accomplishing as much work as you planned. Despite how unpleasant and unproductive today was, you’re probably going to do it all over again tomorrow. This is just one scenario of the recently acknowledged condition called presenteeism.
Most companies have experience with managing absenteeism. They have policies in place that ensures employees are at their most efficient in the workplace, while having sufficient time off to deal with personal matters. But not all employers recognize, or is even aware of its equally important counter-part, presenteeism.
Presenteeism is defined by a situation in which an employee is physically at work, but due to a physical or mental illness is working while distracted, therefore in a diminished capacity.
Unlike absenteeism, presenteeism is notoriously hard to identify and therefore very difficult to address. This is due to the fact that presenteeism very often does not have measureable indicators that can be used to quantify instances. For example, a person suffering undiagnosed from depression coming in to work may seem to simply be having a series of bad days. Unless the employee reaches out for help, and in many cases they do not, it would be impossible for employers to identify it as a case of presenteeism and would not be able to assist. The employee would continue to work unproductively, costing the company many hours in wasted wages. Studies in fact have shown that presenteeims costs companies about four times more than absenteeism, and may even be more than Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability and prescription drugs costs. Due to its silent nature, employees often go undiagnosed, turning to over-the-counter (non-reimbursable) drugs, which cannot be tracked by the company.
Solutions
Although difficult to identify, there are methods employers can utilize to mitigate these issues. The easiest and perhaps the most important is to simply acknowledge that it exists in the workplace. Being aware of the issue is the first step, as it allows employers to look out for the indistinct signs that points to presenteeism. Knowing the cause of the issues, employers can begin crafting solutions. Here are a few strategies to start with.
Put an emphasis on good policies and culture.
Scrap the strict absence management policies that put pressure on employees to come in despite their conditions. Offering a work from home option is a great policy to have in place. To ensure productivity just add deadlines to projects. Giving employees more flexibility with their hours eliminates the burden of showing up to work despite feeling physically or mentally ill.
Get to know your employees
Make an effort to genuinely get to know your employees on a more personal level. Being a little more involved allows employers a different view into the lives of the employees. Knowing an employee’s typical work habits will allow employers to identify major changes in their productivity, which may be early signs of presenteeism.
Have a workplace wellness program
A workplace wellness program provides employees additional resources to help maintain their physical and mental health. A feature of most workplace wellness programs is employee assistance services. These services include counselling for a number of different life challenges such as depression, work/ life balance, addiction and even financial matters. They are all dealt with utmost confidentiality, so employees can feel secure using them. Employers can also organize health risk appraisals and health fairs to further support their employees’ wellness. The small financial investments for these services will guarantee returns in the long run.
Generational gaps in age are often used to separate us into various demographics. Each one influenced by the era they grew up in. Shaped by social and sometimes economical factors, these profile groups find they have key similarities in areas such as values, opinions and even attitudes.
One such generation are the millennials, or Gen-Y. They consist of young adults ages 15-35. These individuals are characterized as independent, socially connected, tech-savvy and money conscious. They are often well educated and have high expectations of themselves, especially with respect to their careers. The pressures they put on themselves may well be why they have the highest risk of developing mental health issues amongst all the other generations.
Despite being the most socially connected group, millennials have the least amount of social support system. With so much demand to be successful both professionally and personally, it is not hard to see why they are so prone to being victims of bad mental health. Anxiety and drepression are very real and very serious issues that they face every day. In fact these disorders often lead to substance abuse in young adults.
Why are millennial so susceptible to mental health issues?
As mentioned, each demographic group and their unique traits are the sum of multiple factors from their environment. Millennials specifically were brought up to have optimistic childhoods and was instilled with high expectations. Expectations that if not met, lead to stress and anxiety which can eventually form into a mental illness.
How can we support millennials in the workplace?
Work-life balance
- A good work-life balance is very important to alleviating the stress brought on by their careers. A more flexible work schedule and opportunities to telecommute are just a couple of examples of initiatives to have in place.
Communication
- Listening to millennials is key. They want to feel that their input and comments are being heard and that it matters. They also respond well to constructive feedback. Having an open channel of communication is crucial to building a successful and healthy workplace relationship with this group.
Work Environment
- Cultivating a fun and light workplace environment is not just good for millennials, it is actually good for everybody. Having a little fun at work does not mean productivity has to grind to a halt, in fact studies have shown that it can actually bolster overall productivity.
Career Counselling and Development
- Because millennials are very career oriented, providing counselling support as a resource is extremely valuable to them. Growing professionally within the company not only helps to keep them happy, it also gives them incentive to stick around.
1 in 5 Canadian will experience some form of mental health. It hinders over half a million people from working every week and costs the Canadian economy billions of dollars. And right now millennials are the ones most likely to be affected. This is why understanding them and their needs are crucial to their success in the workplace.
Traumatic Event Support Services
Shepell’s nationally organized and centrally based trauma response service can address an organization’s need to provide support to both management and employees affected by traumatic events. Using our service, client organizations can be assured of the appropriateness of interventions, the consistency of quality, the level of training and expertise available from trauma specialists, and the timeliness of support. They can be secure in the knowledge that every employee affected by a trauma will receive risk assessment and follow-up, thus mitigating the likelihood of STD and LTD claims, and possible liability to the organization.
Shepell Traumatic Event Support Services is available on a 24-hour basis, through a network of specially trained counsellors who respond immediately to traumatic events. It is the most seasoned and comprehensive service of its kind in Canada, with counsellors trained in Critical Incident Debriefing (Mitchell Model), Community Crisis Response (NOVA Model) and General Trauma Interventions (Shepell Model).
We prepare a workforce for and respond to the predictable organizational trauma that follows significant restructuring, downsizing or major change of any other kind in the workplace. Some of the other incidents that can impact an employee’s ability to function normally are:
- Terrorism
- Sudden death by stroke, heart attack, or other causes
- Violent behaviour in the workplace
- Tragedy, such as a plane, train or highway crash
- Work accident resulting in amputation, injury, death
- Terrorism
- Sudden death by stroke, heart attack, or other causes
- Violent behaviour in the workplace
- Tragedy, such as a plane, train or highway crash
- Work accident resulting in amputation, injury, death
