Absenteeism: calculating the rate to better combat this scourge

Ah... absenteeism! The bête noire of HR and personnel administration. And the least we can say is that the health crisis has exacerbated the problem, with absenteeism up 20% on the previous year.

Calculating the absenteeism rate is a good way of assessing the extent of the phenomenon in your company. If you've never done it, you may be wondering what types of absence to take into account, how to calculate it, and above all how to analyze it in order to draw conclusions and put in place an action plan to reduce it.

Good news: to help you, we've provided a free downloadable Excel file to automatically calculate this HR indicator and track it throughout the year. Or is it easier to do with HRIS software? Let's find out!

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What is the absenteeism rate?

Definition

The absenteeism rate is an indicator used by the human resources department to measure and monitor employee absenteeism within the company. It reveals the proportion of absentee employees in the total payroll.

➡️ But what exactly is absenteeism? Absenteeism refers to repeated absences of long duration.

More than a simple rate, absenteeism is considered to be a true indicator of the company's social climate, or an indicator of dysfunction. Indeed, just as there's no smoke without fire, there's no absenteeism without a cause.

👉 Anecdote: the days with the highest absenteeism rates are Mondays and Fridays 😉

What to take into account when calculating absenteeism

The types of absence taken into account in the calculation vary from company to company. The key is to compare the N absenteeism rate with the N-1 rate. So don't change the formula along the way, to avoid distorting the results.

However, it is generally accepted that planned absences should be excluded from the calculation. For example, we do not take into account

• maternity and paternity leave,
• paid vacations and RTT,
• absences for training,
• and strike-related absences.

Here are the "unexpected" absences that you can take into account (or not):

• short- or long-term illness,
• occupational illness,
• leave for sick children,
• work-related accidents,
• unjustified absences,
• poorly motivated absences, etc.

What is a good absenteeism rate?

A good absenteeism rate is one that tends towards zero, but it is commonly accepted that it is under control as long as it does not exceed 5%.

If it's tending towards 10%, it's starting to look worrying, but nothing is irremediable and you can always act on this rate by analyzing the causes and treating them at source.

How do you calculate the absenteeism rate?

Absenteeism calculation formula

Here's the formula most commonly used by companies to calculate the absenteeism rate:

This indicator can be calculated over a week, a month or a year, for example.

Application example

Your company employs 29 people. In the month of December 2021, with 23 theoretical working days, it recorded 7 days of absence.

(7/[23 x 29]) x 100

= 1,05 %

The absenteeism rate is therefore 1.05%.

Calculate your absenteeism rate with our Excel template

Did you dream about it? We've done it! Discover our file for tracking and calculating absenteeism.

Each month, record absences (on a day-to-day basis or before moving on to the next month) and let our file do the calculations for you. Download it for free!

Here's a preview of the file:

You can customize the file with the number of employees concerned and the name. Be sure to follow the instructions - they explain everything! You can :

• add or remove employees ;
• fill in the absences you wish to take into account in absenteeism by adding a cross in front of the person concerned for each day of absence;
• spot at a glance the most assiduous employees (in green) and those who are starting to drop out (in red).

➡️ A dedicated tab lets you track your absenteeism rate over the year!

Tracking absenteeism: even better with software

Using an Excel file to track absenteeism is often the first reflex: free, easy to use, infinite possibilities (provided you have an advanced level with formulas).

Even so, you'll quickly come up against certain limitations, as :

• you have to enter everything by hand, which is particularly time-consuming and error-prone;
• it's difficult to collaborate on an Excel file without fear of making a mistake and erasing your colleague's work;
• Excel is not the format that offers the greatest visibility of data, even though it is becoming increasingly important for strategic decision-making;
• you may encounter slowdowns or bugs if you have a lot of employees to keep track of, and therefore a lot of data (putting your nerves and patience to the test 🤯 ) ;
• the data isn't secure, which is a problem if it's confidential;
• it lacks context, as you can only track this indicator without comparing it to other HR indicators.

By using software, you make life easier and can go much further in your analysis!

🛠 GrafiQ software, from publisher QuickMS, is an online social management solution that helps VSEs, SMEs and SMBs to manage and automate their human resources. Its mission is to make your data speak for itself, by automatically calculating over 1,000 indicators and customizing dashboards. In addition to the absenteeism rate, you can, for example, track absences by reason, analyze the costs incurred, or use other complementary indicators such as the work-related accident frequency rate.

Why measure and analyze absenteeism?

Here are a few good reasons for tracking absenteeism:

• Absenteeism costs companies a lot of money. 108 billion euros per year in France, according to calculations by the Sapiens Institute, of which 60 billion are direct costs. This represents a cost of over 4,000 euros per employee per year.

➡️ Keeping track of absenteeism rates can help reduce lost earnings .

• Avoid the negative domino effect on other parts of the company: delays in projects, increased workloads for other employees, etc. If absenteeism becomes too preponderant, it can have truly harmful consequences and weaken the company.

➡️ Keeping track of absenteeism rates helps to control collateral damage .

• Absenteeism can be avoided in a number of cases, so it's important to identify the causes so that action can be taken at the root of the problem. Here are the main causes of absenteeism:
• the working environment (insecurity, noise, heat, etc.),
• management style (unclear objectives, lack of vision or strategy, etc.),
• work atmosphere (poor relations between colleagues, tyrannical manager, heavy workload, etc.).

➡️ Tracking absenteeism rates enables you to understand what triggers absenteeism, so that you can find effective solutions to reduce it .

While you are certainly not responsible for all your employees' ills, there are a good number of causes that you can act on (as seen above). That's why it's important to take a closer look at these causes, in order to identify them and take action.

The absenteeism rate is a good indicator to analyze over time, in order to verify that the measures implemented are having a tangible effect on the rate's evolution. Your objective? To bring it down.

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Presenteeism: an enemy we don't pay enough attention to

Is absenteeism on your radar? You're right, but beware of your other equally dangerous enemy, which often lurks in the blind spot: presenteeism.

Presenteeism refers to employees who are present in the workplace but unable to carry out their duties at the usual level of productivity. This may be for psychological (mental overload, lack of motivation, loss of meaning, etc.) or physical reasons. Some people do not stop to rest when they are ill, and see their situation worsen, or contaminate healthy colleagues.

Presenteeism is more common than you might think, and is generally the last step before absenteeism. A study by Malakoff Médéric reveals that 70% of employees claim to come to work despite a proven illness. Has Covid changed this situation since then? Probably, which could reduce part of the problem.

Ensuring the professional well-being of your employees is therefore an effective means of combating absenteeism and presenteeism.