Wednesday, November 17, 2004
How to reduce sick leaves
The passengers were sweating out sitting in the train parked in the station on the hot summer day. The train had stopped at the station for more than an hour although the scheduled stopping time was to be a minute or two. There was no sign when the train would depart. And the reason? Fifty train drivers had called in sick at the same time. There was not a single driver to driver the train. And this was not the first time such incident occurred. The whole saga was indeed a shame.
In this system, it is up to the worker to determine whether he or she is sick and unable to work for the day. A doctor’s certificate is not required. The fifty drivers may be really sick. But for fifty drivers to call in sick at the same time was just an amazing coincident.
Why would so many drivers called in sick at the same time? The answer was obvious. They were disgruntled, demoralised or simply unhappy with the working conditions. Let along the cost of providing sick leaves, the resulting absence of employees from work can cause a lot of public inconvenience as seen in the incident mentioned above.
Management needs to take note of the basic concept that a happy employee is a productive employee I have some suggestions for any organisation to reduce the number of sick leaves in the organisation and increase productivity. Some of these and many not listed here may have already been implemented by management throughout the world.
1. In many companies, sick leaves for the year not taken are forfeited. Organisation should allow their employees to accumulate untaken sick leaves to be used at later years for prolong sickness or for hospitalisation.
2. When an employee leaves an organisation, untaken sick leaves should be converted to some payment as a reward for the employee to keep healthy during his service with the organisation. Organisation may wish to consult the employees to determine a suitably formula for calculating the payment.
3. Organisation may reward their employees who have taken very few sick days or no sick day during year with a certificate or a small gift. This can be done during the company annual party or during festive occasion.
4. Organisation may publish the names of those employees who keep healthy and seldom take sick leaves in their company newsletters or on notice board. This can boost the working moral greatly and encourage employee to keep healthy.
5. Organisation should examine the work conditions of the employees to determine the adverse factor causing of the employee absence and improve working condition and working environment to reduce sick leaves.
In this system, it is up to the worker to determine whether he or she is sick and unable to work for the day. A doctor’s certificate is not required. The fifty drivers may be really sick. But for fifty drivers to call in sick at the same time was just an amazing coincident.
Why would so many drivers called in sick at the same time? The answer was obvious. They were disgruntled, demoralised or simply unhappy with the working conditions. Let along the cost of providing sick leaves, the resulting absence of employees from work can cause a lot of public inconvenience as seen in the incident mentioned above.
Management needs to take note of the basic concept that a happy employee is a productive employee I have some suggestions for any organisation to reduce the number of sick leaves in the organisation and increase productivity. Some of these and many not listed here may have already been implemented by management throughout the world.
1. In many companies, sick leaves for the year not taken are forfeited. Organisation should allow their employees to accumulate untaken sick leaves to be used at later years for prolong sickness or for hospitalisation.
2. When an employee leaves an organisation, untaken sick leaves should be converted to some payment as a reward for the employee to keep healthy during his service with the organisation. Organisation may wish to consult the employees to determine a suitably formula for calculating the payment.
3. Organisation may reward their employees who have taken very few sick days or no sick day during year with a certificate or a small gift. This can be done during the company annual party or during festive occasion.
4. Organisation may publish the names of those employees who keep healthy and seldom take sick leaves in their company newsletters or on notice board. This can boost the working moral greatly and encourage employee to keep healthy.
5. Organisation should examine the work conditions of the employees to determine the adverse factor causing of the employee absence and improve working condition and working environment to reduce sick leaves.
