Absenteeism points to deeper problem

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Dear Joan:
We have a problem with absenteeism with hourly workers in the manufacturing area of our company. Management has tried incentives such as a weekly drawing for a monetary reward from a list of employees with perfect attendance for the last month but have not had success. This situation causes severe problems with productivity especially when it involves a limited number of trained machine operators. What can be done to resolve this?

Answer:
An incentive system that is based on luck will be as effective as using a lottery system to award annual salary increases. If you were among the good performers whose name didn't get drawn, how would you feel? If you were a poor or average performer, how would you feel? If each employee can't benefit from his or her own attendance record, there is no incentive.

An attendance problem this pervasive will probably not be cleared up with incentives. Even if you rewarded each employee who had good attendance, there is a good chance you would not get the results you want because something else is wrong.

Poor attendance is usually a symptom of a deeper problem. Employees who have some control over their jobs, like their bosses, feel they are making a quality product and are valued by their companies don't have attendance problems.

You may want to ask the workers themselves. Another way to approach this is to hire an outside consultant who will ask them for you. One thing is certain; they probably won't feel safe enough to answer honestly unless they're able to do so anonymously. If the answer has to do with boredom, boss problems or company complaints, these workers may feel they have too much to lose if they're honest. This is especially true if no one has ever asked them for any input before and they don't know how their honesty will be received.

Your company will need to guarantee that honesty won't be punished.

Your company's approach should be straightforward and honest with these employees. Explain that the problem is serious, their contribution is vital to the company's success and you want to hear what the problem is so you can all work on solving it.

If you suspect that the boss is the type of person who would not handle any negative feedback well, he or she will need some support from an outside or inside human relations expert as well from his or her own boss.

Some questions your management team may want to answer first are:

·        Are good workers rewarded? Is the reward significant enough to matter?

·        Are there negative consequences when an individual has a pattern of performance problems or attendance problems? Can they be fired? Does the boss "look the other way" for some workers but not others?

·        Does their pay go up if they learn more and do more? Are experienced workers given opportunities to cross-train on other jobs?

·        Can more experienced workers get "promoted in place." In other words, the more skilled and experienced someone becomes, can they get more status, recognition, responsibility and reward on their current job?

·        Are the workers asked for their opinion on job-related problems? Are they able to fix their own problems or given permission to work with those who can help them solve problems? Does the group have team meetings to communicate and solve problems?

·        Is their manager held accountable for good management practices or just for "getting the iron out the door?"

·        Does the company (and their boss) communicate with the employees so they know how their jobs fit in and why their contribution matters?

·        Do they hear feedback about their quality from the receivers of their work? Does the company give them the time and resources they need to control their own quality?

·        Does the company implement employees' suggestions?

·        Don't be surprised to find that the problem is not with the workers themselves but with the systems and procedures management has imposed. Employee input and honest answers to the above questions will lead you to the root cause of the problem.

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