NEWS
5 Effective Ways to Prevent Employee Absenteeism

Employee Absenteeism
Employee absenteeism is the bane of having a workforce in your business. It’s inevitable (and understandable) that on some days, an employee will be absent from work when they’re supposed to be working because of a valid reason, such as illness or family emergencies.
As an employer, you have a strategy for ensuring absenteeism doesn’t hurt your firm’s productivity and efficiency. However, if absenteeism cases are increasing at an alarming rate, you have reason to worry. It’s time to find effective ways to combat employee absenteeism and ensure everyone is playing their role.
Continue reading this article for a handful of strategies you can use to reduce absenteeism in your workplace.
1. Establish Employee Attendance Policies
Let’s admit it. Left to their own devices, most people would not show up to work. So, if it’s not mandatory for your workers to come to work, rest assured most of them, if not all, will not report for duty.
It’s for this reason that organizations have employee attendance policies. These policies spell out the regular working hours and days, reporting time expectations, the procedures for getting absence permission (time-off), and the consequences of unreported absence among other guidelines.
If you’re a new business or you’ve never had employees, you might not have any employee attendance policies. Don’t make the mistake of hiring employees without first creating these policies.
If your business has had employees for some time, it’s possible that your attendance policies are outdated or no longer suitable. Give them another look and make adjustments where necessary.
However, keep in mind that employee attendance policies must be in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and other relevant state and local laws. For instance, you cannot require your employees to work more than 40 hours a week. Anything beyond that must be charged as overtime at a rate that’s at least 1.5X the regular rate.
2. Track the Absenteeism Rate
As a small business with a few employees, it’s easy to keep tabs on the absenteeism rate. But if you have tens or hundreds of employees, it’s difficult to have a clear picture of who’s absent and who isn’t – unless you have a reliable way to track the absenteeism rate, like this time clock for small business.
The absenteeism rate is the number of unplanned absent days over the number of available work days in a certain period. You can track the absenteeism rate for an individual, a team, or the whole organization.
Knowing your organization’s absenteeism rate and comparing it with the national average (3.2 percent) will give you a clear picture of the task ahead. If the rate is above the national average, something is amiss. You need to understand why your employees are absconding from duty before implementing any practical prevention measures.
That’s because some strategies for reducing absenteeism in the workplace are more effective than others. When the absenteeism rate is high, you need more aggressive measures, such as introducing heavier fines.
3. Offer Paid Time Off and Other Incentives
You expect your employees to be at work when they’re supposed to. After all, you pay them for their services.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean some of your employees won’t be absent from work with your permission. The harsh truth is that sometimes an employee will just choose to be absent because they want a day of rest, are burned out, or simply because they think you won’t notice.
Of course, you can punish such employees with fines, but at the end of the day, your organization’s productivity will decline. A fine cannot replace lost work hours.
This is why you need to embrace the idea of incentivizing your employees to come to work. Yes, you pay them, but throwing in some paid time off won’t hurt. In fact, it will go a long way in increasing employee attendance.
Remember, PTO shouldn’t just be for vacations. If you can afford to pay your employees for other times when they’re from work, such as jury duty or parental leave, do it.
Besides PTO, you can run a rewards program for employee attendance. The employees who record the lowest absenteeism rate can get an award.
4. Ensure the Workplace Environment Is Safe and Healthy
An unsafe and/or unhealthy work environment is a leading cause of employee absenteeism.
Safety and health hazards can cause accidents and illnesses that will force your employees to take sick leave. A hazardous workplace will make workers ill for longer, a situation that will cause them to exhaust their sick leave. When that happens, they might have no choice but to be absent from work as they nurse their conditions.
As such, ensure your workplace is safe and healthy. Hire a workplace health and safety specialist to audit your company’s job site, identify hazards, and recommend ways to make the place safer for everyone.
5. Allow Flexible Work Scheduling/Remote Work
Did you know remote work can reduce unscheduled absenteeism from work by 63 percent?
When your employees don’t feel like coming to the office, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to work. In many cases, they want to work, just not from the office. This is where remote work comes in handy.
You don’t have to go fully remote as an organization to reap the absenteeism-reducing benefits of remote work. Offering employees the freedom to work from home for at least part of the time will yield the results you’re eyeing.
Don’t Let Employee Absenteeism Kill Your Business
Left unchecked, unscheduled employee absenteeism will hurt workplace productivity and increase your operating costs. If absenteeism is spiraling out of control in your organization, don’t wait to act. Implement the strategies in this article and you’ll see positive change.
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NEWS
5 Infographic Tips You Need to Know

Infographic Tips
Are you looking to make a great infographic? Do you want it to be as effective and well-received as possible?
If so, then you need to learn about infographic tips and tricks. By ensuring that your infographic is visually appealing, well-researched, and organized well, you’ll increase how helpful it’ll be. Rather than churning out an infographic that nobody notices, you’ll notice your work is appreciated.
See below for an infographic tips guide that will teach you how to ensure your project is the best it can be.
1. Keep it Simple
When it comes to making effective infographics, it’s important to keep things simple. Keep the layout clean and simple, and focus on using images that don’t distract from the text.
Don’t be afraid to use whitespace, it will help break up the information and make it more inviting for readers. Make sure your infographic looks good both on desktop and mobile devices. A responsive design is essential in the digital age.
If you want to make a simple infographic for personal or professional use, you can try out this free tool!
2. Visual Hierarchy
If you want your infographics to be successful, there are certain tips you need to know. One key aspect is the visual hierarchy. The visual hierarchy is the order in which information is presented in an infographic, either in terms of importance or chronology.
Keeping the visual hierarchy in mind when designing your infographic is a great way to ensure that viewers can easily take in and comprehend your information in a logical and coherent way.
3. Use Icons and Symbols
Using icons and symbols helps create infographics with an intuitive experience by allowing data to be quickly scanned and understood. They are a great way to add visual interest to an infographic without taking up a lot of space.
When choosing icons and symbols for an infographic, consider how they will be interpreted by the target audience. Keep it simple by sticking to one style that will work throughout the entire infographic, and use titles and labels to ensure they’re easy to understand.
4. Color and Contrast
Colors help organize information and make the infographic more visually appealing and easier to digest. Contrast can even further help by making sure the information stands out from the background so it’s easier to identify.
When using colors, make sure to use those that complement each other. As far as contrast goes, pairing light colors with dark ones will create the desired effect and make any text more visible. Using colors to highlight important points can also help direct readers’ attention and guide them through the infographic.
5. Tell a Story
Ensure you create a clear purpose for the story you are telling. Conveying the key takeaways from a research project to summarizing the findings as an example. Think about the key data points and relevant visuals to include in your infographic.
Choose visuals that align with the data and that can help to bring your story to life. Finally, pay attention to detail and ensure that all your facts and figures are accurate.
Apply These Infographic Tips
Now that you know the best infographic tips, you’re ready to get started crafting your own. Follow these tips to create effective and eye-catching infographics, and don’t forget to keep experimenting to find the best design for your project. Start creating and show us your awesome infographics!
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