• Introduction

Recent estimates put unplanned or unscheduled absence costs at 8.7 percent of payroll, and employers are seeking the knowledge to better understand how increased absenteeism costs can affect the company's bottom line and what can be done to battle this issue (Wolters Kluwer, 2015) . Absenteeism is an employee's intentional or habitual absence from work. While employers expect employees to miss a certain number of workdays each year, excessive absences can equate to decreased productivity and can have a major effect on company finances, morale, and other factors. This phenomenon known as "presenteeism" is most obviously associated with illness. Fortunately, there are some specific measures that can be put in place before an absenteeism issue occurs that can help to guarantee heightened employee performance and attendance.

• Research Question and Design

2.1 Question: How does absenteeism affects a company's productivity, efficiency, and profitability?

• Objective:

Our research also compiles specific suggestions for reducing absenteeism due to a variety of causes. The paper focuses on application of theory and industry experience rather than developing or expanding theory.

• Preventing Workplace Absenteeism

To prevent excessive and unnecessary absences for any reasons, an effective employee absence plan should be implemented to deal with attendance issues. The plan should clearly define expectations and outline disciplinary actions for employees that do not behave appropriately along with incentives for employees that do. The company can take preventative measures to reduce absenteeism through recruiting and training. Other effective actions companies can take to reduce absenteeism include positive reinforcement of solid attendance, and implementing flexible scheduling.

• Develop Absence Policy

The first step in creating a system of controls to prevent absenteeism is to develop an airtight absence policy. In this way, employees will have a clear understanding of what the company expects. This will pave the way to implementing an organizational culture centered on exemplary attendance. In addition, the terms and conditions for paid holidays, as well as military, religious, jury duty, and family and medical leave absences should be defined. In addition, management should take the time to lead by example by arriving on time each day and only taking absences that are in line with company policy (Insperity, 2012) .

• Proactive Recruitment

An airtight absence policy will mean nothing, however, if employees are not competent or hard-working enough to follow company guidelines. Employees will be less likely to feel singled out and resent the attendance policy if it is consistent company-wide. Employees should be hired based on high levels of competence and attendance, among other things. Using professional venues to attract employees is the best option when hoping to bring in candidates who will take company guidelines seriously. Once those employees are hired, the company should take plenty of time to train the employees on employer guidelines and to make sure that employees clearly understand what will be expected of them regarding absences (Miksen, 2015) .

• Business and Economic Research

ISSN 2162 -4860 2018 In addition, communication should be kept up throughout the employee's time with the company to ensure that they are using absences positively. Any absence problems should be addressed and the company should be there to ask if increased absences could be beneficial to improving employee morale and decreasing presenteeism (Jackson, 2015) .

• Positive Reinforcement

In order to keep employees moving towards company goals after the initial hiring and training phase is complete, programs for positive reinforcement of attendance should be implemented. Four major types of positive reinforcement plans include financial incentive programs, recognition programs, lottery programs, and information feedback programs (Scott, Markham & Robers, 1985) : Financial incentive programs. These programs reward employees monetarily for excellent attendance. Employees who had one or two absences received a $25 cash bonus. In this type of program, no financial incentive is implemented, but employees are notified with each paycheck of their absence situation and how their level of attendance stacks up with that of other employees.

• Flexible Scheduling

Many companies have implemented some form of flexible scheduling to avoid much of the absenteeism costs that could occur down the road. Flexible scheduling can include flexible hours or flexible time schedules (an employee works from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. instead of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), compressed workweeks (four 10-hour days instead of the typical five 8-hour shifts), part-time work, or job sharing (a structured form of part-time work) (HRCouncil.ca, 2015) . Most employers are a bit risk-averse when it comes to implementing a flexible scheduling policy up front. In addition, could employees that are not in need of flexible scheduling feel that they are being Sloan Center on Aging and Work, 2015)? While these issues will all need to be addressed when flexible scheduling policies are implemented, recent studies suggest that job flexibility can offer many benefits to both employers and employees, including improved job satisfaction, reduced absenteeism, greater commitment, and reduced turnover. The following section will seek to assist employers in determining whether or not an absence-tracking mechanism is required.

• Gathering Absenteeism Information

The first step in solving an absenteeism problem in the workplace is to determine whether an issue exists. This first step brings quite a bit of difficulty with it, as most companies simply do not have a process in place to track rates of absenteeism in the workplace. The problem then is not that attendance data is not being collected, it is that attendance data is not being collected and analyzed properly. While certain laws and regulations protect employees from Business and Economic Research ISSN 2162 -4860 2018 having to give out too much information, certain basic information can be reaped from the call-ins that can be used to better pinpoint absentee fluctuations. It is important that line managers be involved in the process to better understand the specific nature the company is experiencing absenteeism issues. The following section will discuss some of the major causes of absenteeism in the workplace.

• Causes of Absenteeism

Once a program to track absenteeism has been put into use, it will be time to track the data and determine the major causes of absenteeism in the specific workplace. This section will analyze seven major causes of absenteeism that companies will more than likely discover and specific ways to battle each cause.

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

The Integrated Benefits Institute, which represents major U.S. employers and business coalitions, says poor health costs the U.S. economy $576 billion a year, according to new research. Wage replacement costs $117 billion from absence due to illness as well as workers compensation and both short-and long-term disability. Meanwhile, another $232 billion of poor health costs come from medical treatment and pharmacy related costs. In 2003, an estimated 18 million adults aged 19 to 64 were not working and had a disability or chronic disease, or were not working because of health reasons. Sixty-nine million workers reported missing days due to illness, for a total of 407 million days of lost time at work.

• Business and Economic Research

• Specific Cures

A number of methods have been put into place in order to possibly find a cure for absenteeism related to illness. In addition, unions will often strongly object to any efforts by management to inquire more deeply into the nature of an employee's illness (Benefits Interface, 2014) . Many companies have recently taken it into their own hands to provide wellness programs that encourage employee health. Hand washing is the most effective way to prevent the spread of communicable disease, and elementary schools have recently begun to recognize the benefits of including alcohol-free instant hand sanitizers throughout classrooms. A recent study revealed that after just 5 weeks, students using the active product were 33% less likely to have been absent because of illness (White, 2014) .

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

A recent study by Canada Life Group Insurance showed that one in six employees who have falsely called in ill said that they had done so because they were tired. In addition, 12 percent stated that they needed time off due to work-related stress but did not want to admit it (Pay and Benefits, 2014).

• Specific Cures

It appears that the best way to keep employees motivated at work and in good spirits is to encompass a plan of communication, motivation, and leadership. Communication with employees should be established by holding regular staff meetings, emphasizing positives and downplaying negatives, recognizing and acknowledging their work, and clarifying expectations and job requirements. Interestingly enough, in today's age of technological closeness, a leading cause of employee stress and burnout has been the incessant intertwining of work and home life through technology. Devices have caused employees to become 24/7 intravenous hookups to their jobs, with e-mails and phone calls buzzing in well after they have clocked out for the day. To keep employees from becoming disengaged with the company's goals, some employees are going the extra mile to keep a safe distance between employee home and work life. For example, Volkswagen company recently pledged to deactivate e-mails on German staff BlackBerries during non-office hours.

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

In a given year, 18.8 million Americans (9.5% of the adult population) will suffer from a depressive illness (Boehm, Buttar, Valenstein, Vijan, & Zeber, 2001) . Depression tops the list of health-related productivity costs in the workplace. The annual cost of depression is estimated at $44 billion in lost productivity to American companies (Martin, 2012) . In addition, research shows that rates of depression vary by occupation and industry type. Among full-time workers aged 18 to 64 years, the highest rates of workers experiencing a major depressive episode in 2007 were found in the personal care and service occupations and the food preparation and serving related occupations.

• Specific Cures

A number of studies of a diverse group of occupations have identified several job stressors that may be associated with depression, including high job demands, low job control, and lack of social support in the workplace. However, depression is a complex condition, and changes in the workplace environment will not necessarily decrease rates of depression drastically throughout the workplace. In order to ensure that employees are receiving all of the care necessary regarding this phenomenon, it is important for employers to both be proactive and reactive. Employers should be proactive in creating a workplace that eliminates risks of depression caused by stress, bullying or harassment, or other workplace issues. Employers should be reactive in responding to employees already suffering from depression by providing assistance such as depression recognition screenings, employee assistance programs, supervisors trained in depression recognition, and ensuring workers' access to needed psychiatric services (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014).

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

Recently much attention has been given to the concept of bullying in absenteeism. A recent survey of 100,000 public servants in Australia found that 17 percent of employees indicated that they had been subjected to harassment or bullying in their workplace in the last 12 months. Bullying and harassment affect productivity. Employees who feel undermined at work are more likely to be stressed and to miss work for health reasons. Employees are significantly less creative when they are bullied at work, and one study even found that just watching someone get bullied at work is linked to depressive symptoms (Lebowitz, 2013) .

• Business and Economic Research

• Specific Cures

Proactive employers have addressed behavioral issues through Code of Conduct policies intended to eradicate outrageous, disrespectful, and bullish behavior toward coworkers. Nonetheless, evidence indicates that these efforts have failed to produce the employer reaction and intervention expected by the affected workforce (Employment Practices Solutions, 2011) . Sharpe Health and Safety Assessment & Prevention outlines the following employer initiatives that should be utilized to help stop workplace bullying and harassment: Educate all staff on the subtleties of bullying Ensure anti-bullying policy is current Inform HR professionals how to deal with complaints of bullying Tutor managers how to recognize bullying Provide information on support groups, web sites, forums, etc. Accept responsibility to act once alerted to bullying

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

A quarter of all women in the U.S. return to work fewer than 10 days after giving birth, decreasing productivity by giving them less time to bond with their children, making breast-feeding more difficult, and increasing their risk of post-partum depression. Paid maternity leave is also good for business. They also noted improved productivity, higher morale and reduced turnover. Most people believe that the U.S. has simply not made a change due to the fact that the country deals with finance and parenthood individually, with each family fending for themselves. In fact, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families, the payroll tax costs employees less than $2.25 per month (London, 2014) The birth of a child is just the start of absenteeism issues related to children. In addition, drains on productivity of not providing childcare can be immense.

• Specific Cures

Maternity leave is a hot-button topic at the moment in the United States, and while it is still not mandatory for U.S. corporations to provide maternity leave to workers, there is much that can be done to help combat this issue right away. If a company does not have the assets to simply offer paid maternity leave, they should consider other ways to make new parents comfortable maneuvering between home and work life. That means small companies should consider letting new parents work from home, complete tasks outside of normal working hours, or even pool with other local businesses to offer childcare (Clark, 2014) . The best way to keep employees with children motivated while on the job is to provide child care for employees. This totals up to nearly $3 billion in annual childcare costs in the United States.

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

Americans are living longer and the number of older adults is steadily increasing. Unfortunately, social stigmas cause employers to typically associate eldercare as something quite different from childcare--while employers are quick to check in regarding the well-being of employees' children, they are not as adept at recognizing signs of stress in dealing with elder relatives. These adjustment include arriving late/leaving early or taking time off, cutting back on work hours, changing jobs, or stopping work entirely. From a profitability standpoint, eldercare costs U.S. businesses up to an estimated $33.6 billion per year in lost productivity from full-time working caregivers. In one study, employers found that they paid about 8 percent more for the health care of caregiver employees compared to non-caregivers (Choula and Feinberg, 2012) .

• Specific Cures

To attempt to solve the growing dilemma of eldercare absenteeism, employers are beginning to view eldercare as the "new" childcare. Employees are finding many new opportunities in the workplace to find assistance, including support groups held onsite for caregivers, expanded employee assistance programs, referrals to organizations that provide assistance, and educational and informational programs held onsite to care for loved ones. While all of these programs appear to be working in keeping employee morale and attendance up in regards to eldercare, the most radical (and potentially the most successful) of these cures is to provide access to eldercare managers as an employee benefit. The costs to the company of providing these benefits are quite small if employees are able to arrive at work and produce satisfactory outputs because they know that their elders are in good hands (Roberts, 2015) .

• Effects on Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability

It is obvious that employee turnover can be a significant cost to employees regarding both productivity and profitability. The Center for American Progress (CAP) found that for all jobs earning less than $50,000 per year, or more than 40 percent of U.S. jobs, the average cost of replacing an employee amounts to fully 20 percent of the person's annual salary. Is an employee demonstrating a noticeable change in attitude, with less communication to management? Are they taking longer lunch breaks and an abundance of personal phone calls? If these factors are causing increased rates of absence, action must be taken to find the root of the issue and convince the employee to stay on board (Robert Half, 2015) . All of these behaviors can, of course, lead to excessive losses in company productivity.

• Specific Cures

The first mistake that many employers make in trying to keep employees on board is to implement programs that make employees happy. Interestingly enough, however, most employees are job hunting not because they are unhappy at work. Strauss & Howe's The Fourth Turning and Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky's "Ready or Not, Here They Come!" These four generational types have continued to rotate for hundreds of years. ( D. Goodman, personal communication, March 16, 2015) . The bonds that employees will share with each other will help keep them focused on where they are and enable them to establish clear career paths that benefit all parties (Marker, 2004) .

• Curing Absenteeism

With all of the many different causes of absenteeism, it is impossible for a company to target each cause specifically and implement programs that will satisfactorily lower rates of absenteeism at reasonable costs. Therefore, determining whether or not to fix the absenteeism issue will depend on how the company wants to best direct their resources and energy. In addition to a detailed cost-benefit analysis, there is a simple formula to help determine whether the costs of solving absenteeism issues are worth the benefits that can be reaped. For a given company, simply divide the employee's salary plus average employer costs by working days (in a calendar year) to determine the average cost of a sick day for an employee. In the following example, we will consider an employee salary of $40,000, 30% employer costs, and 240 working days: What does this formula show?

• Conclusion

Absenteeism is clearly an important issue that is costing businesses in the United States billions of dollars every year. Some controls, like developing a proficient employee absence policy or proactively recruiting and training employees, can help to lessen the effects of absenteeism in the workplace. However, the best methods of putting an end to high absenteeism costs are to develop an understanding of where problems are occurring and how to stop absence issues on a case-by-case basis. Employers can see absenteeism issues under a wide variety of categories. The most prevalent reasons for absence issues include illness and injury, burnout, depression, bullying and harassment, maternity leave and childcare, eldercare, and job hunting.

The above summary is a research paper on Effects of Absenteeism on Company Productivity, Efficiency, and Profitability.

Link :https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=facstaff_submissions

The following is a list of question that i need help. I need a critical analysis based on own words and ideas.

PART A

Q 1. Topic of research - Just State

Q 2. problem statement - Write in own words(Paraphrase)

Q 3.Research Questions - Write in own words

Q 4.Research methods used to answer research questions - Identify and enlist all the methods.

Q 5.Critical analysis of research methods - Compare the different research methods if your course with the one the researcher has used and describe the advantages and disadvantages of the methods referring to the Context of the problem statement.

Q 6.Results achieved - Comment on the results presented by the researcher and identify any gaps and suggest what would have been better.

Q 7. Ethics - Describe how ethical issues have been considered and respected.

PART B

Based on the critical analysis of methods select the method/s you will employ to answer each research questions of your selected topic of research ( do not limit your answer to only whether you will use quantitative or quality methods only) Justify your choice of methods

please kindly send professional answers. by answering each part if possible thank you for your help.