Report on Australian’s Taking Unnecessary Sick Leave
1. Introduction
The infamous 'sickie', better known as sick leave, is leave that workers can take when they cannot attend work due to being sick or injured and is crucial so that employees are not forced to choose between caring for their deteriorating health or working to keep gaining income (Scheil-Adlung & Sandner, 2010). Unfortunately, the sickie is being constantly abused by perfectly healthy Australians for a variety of reasons that often don't actually being sick. People are beginning to believe that taking unwarranted sick leave is a right instead of a privilege, and it is causing major losses in company's profits. The purpose of this report is to identify the potential problems that are causing employees to take unnecessary sick days and the possible solutions to those problems.
In this report, the possible reasons for employee absenteeism being covered are that the workplace roster may not be flexible enough, the staff could possibly be not receiving a sufficient amount of vacation leave from the company, and also some staff may not be feeling mentally capable of attending work on certain days. These points will be supported in sources from peer-reviewed journal articles.
2. Analysis and Critical Evaluation
One reason that employees may be taking unnecessary sick leave is that there may be a lack of flexibility in their workplace. Flexibility in the workplace is a popular way for employees to balance and better manage demands of work, family, and social obligations by allowing employees to modify when and for how long their job related work is performed (Butler, Grzywacz, Ettner & Liu, 2009). Flexible work schedules are often adopted by employers as it giv...
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Employees can be absent from work either due to Long-term sickness, short-term certified or uncertified sickness or unauthorised absence and lateness. Absenteeism will not include annual leave , maternity, compassionate or absence due to training or attending union meetings but where a worker fails to turn up at work as scheduled resulting in disruption of work schedule, added work load, increased payroll costs and poor quality service an d poor staff morale.
U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011). Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011/ted_20111117.htm
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... then this is a culture difference between Mr. Higashi and the employee. However, if Kelly had intended on using the vacation for vacation and sick leave for sick leave then that means there is no vacation time allowed for Kelly to use for this vacation. The compromise would be that Mr. Higashi and Kelly would agree to use one day of sick leave and one day of vacation time off. This strategy would allow both parties to win to some degree and at the same time be able to keep an agreeable relationship between the two parties.
A recent study has shown that the US healthcare system deals with nearly 25 million cases of influenza each year. In a typical year, as many as one person in five in the US comes down with the flu, resulting in more than 200,000hospitalizations. The financial costs are huge, not least for employers. For each episode of illness, an employee typically misses between a half day and five days of work. The cost incurred due to reduced productivity and disruption to work flow; together with other indirect costs, is enormous.
Eighty-five percent of employers documented absences during return-to-work interviews, yet only half of the employers required their employees to fill out a return-to-work form. The above article correlates to my thesis because it shows that line managers lack the... ... middle of paper ... ... Organizations have implemented sick leave incentive policies to reduce employee absence, along with rewarding employees who have good attendance. Broward County, Florida uses a bonus day program where qualifying employees can earn one day off within a six month period if employees do not use any of their sick days.
employee's job for a leave due to personal or family illness. It allows an employee to take up to 12
Flexibility in the workplace should be a benefit for the employee as well as the employer. According to Christensen, “Having flexibility in the workplace will ultimately lead to better morale, increase retention, and become an effective tool for recruitment.” (Christensen, 2005) Flexibility is an important factor toward overall workplace success. As mentioned by Christensen not only is this a great tool for companies to use for recruitment and retention, but improving diversity in the organization. Flexibility means taking a varied approach to the old way things are done. Some examples, changing work hours, location of where the work is done and restructure of the job. The traditional Monday thru Friday, nine to five work design is no longer the norm. Having a flexible work structure allows an organization to modify schedules for employees which in turn gives the employee opportunity to balance work and life. By doing this...
If the health of employees can help or hinder a company, then why do companies still have sick days? With the “on the go” lifestyles, how can we not question the health of employees and their families. Today we have high stress jobs, rush hour traffic, and demanding schedules. Being healthy and fit is the way to conquer tomorrow.
Estimates vary widely on the cost to organizations of poor health in employees, with some estimates reporting losses in the billions of American organizations, not only from the loss of productivity and sick-leaves, but also as a result of caring for these illnesses. Cardiovascular heart-disease (CDH...
The article for “Shirking: the War on Hooky” explained the difficult decision that a managers have to face with they coworkers abuse of absenteeism at work. Also the article evaluate how it causing companies billions of dollars when employees are taking advantage of the sick day policy and it decrease the productivity of the company workforce. The keys questions we have to keep in mind is sick day is generated from absenteeism, also it is part of any new or old employee orientation benefit package when they start working for an employer? The paper will describe different approached manager can used to reduce absenteeism among they coworkers. In how Human Resource should work with the managers to put in place a strong sick policy that represent the company needed and objective.
Increasing access to healthcare services for all Australians, particularly those of great disadvantage such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and promoting a shared care model by making better use of health staff through increasing individuals access to allied health care and working in multidisciplinary teams (Bennett 2013). Also taking on a more patient-centered approach to care to increase patient involvement and promote self-management (Harris & Zwar 2007). Furthermore, a focus more on the prevention, screening and early interventions of chronic illness rather than curative measures can prove as a beneficial change for the Australian health system (Harris & Zwar 2007). By incorporating these factors, the care for individuals with chronic illnesses can be enhanced leading to better health outcomes for patients, protecting the quality of life and wellbeing of Australians as well as reducing the healthcare costs (Harris & Zwar
One of the main problems within the case study of Sick Leave Costing Employers is the Organisational Culture of the business. Organisational Culture is the system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members (Schermerhorn, Davidson, Poole, Woods, Simon, & McBarron, 2014, p. 211). Organisational Culture is an evident problem, this is because if a business does not show its employees shared beliefs, and a variety of values then the members are not going to be guided in the right manner that society wants and accepts. Organisational Culture is a method that a business learns over time as it overcomes hurdles within its external environment or its problems of internal integration. (Edgar & Schein, 1990, pp. 109-119). As...
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