A Stitch in Time Saves Nine: a Story of Absenteeism and Big Organisational Losses
DAVID’s wife, Sarah, is away studying for her Masters — she’ll be gone another 12 months. Taking the kids to school and back is now entirely David’s responsibility. Things were a lot easier when Sarah, a stay-at-home mom, was still around. But, David and Sarah can use all the extra income they can get. The plan is for Sarah to land a teaching job afterward and hopefully pull in a substantial figure every month. Raising kids really is expensive these days. David now has two drop-offs every morning before work — at the crèche, and at the elementary school. This makes him get into work 45 minutes late everyday, but it’s alright — his colleagues are cool. No one is so petty as to rat him out. Pretty much everyone at the office is married with kids and understands the sometimes impossible pull of home demands. In the end, 45 minutes is really not that bad, David reasons. After all, Beatrice misses way more work time than himself — even for years — and nothing terrible has happened. Yes, 45 minutes isn’t bad.
The thing is… it is.
TIME-LOSS (DAVID) — 3 HOURS 45 MINUTES PER WEEK
BEATRICE owns an upscale women’s clothing store. Yes, she is a fulltime employee alongside David at their work, but she is able to juggle all the balls she has in the air easily. Her store is a little over 2 years old, and business has never been better. She’s had to begin periodic trips to Dubai to restock with merchandise and keep her business ahead of the competition. It would really be a lot easier if she quit the 9 to 5 and focused solely on the store, she reasons often…but then the 9 to 5 pays so well! No harm, no foul — after all, everyone at the office knows about her store. Lilian is even wearing a watch right now she bought from there, and on which she still hasn’t completed payments. It’s all good…..no one at the office minds much that Beatrice needs to attend to her store business during work hours. She reckons since she only shaves a mere hour off work before closing time everyday to dash down to her store — and has done this for a really long time now, with no repercussions so far — then there is really no damage.
The thing is … there is.
TIME-LOSS (BEATRICE) — 5 HOURS PER WEEK
Lilian has never been happier. She is about to become a lawyer. This was her childhood dream and despite all the delays and the seemingly endless barrage of curveballs life throws at her, she never gives up. Thank goodness for evening-classes, even though some of those classes often creep into the afternoons, and sometimes mornings. But Lilian’s colleagues at work are just the best. They have never not covered up her absence…..and it’s been a long 5 years. Yes, she’s had to buy them gifts now and again to express her appreciation, but they do it all for her and not the tokens. Finals will begin soon, and Lilian is more excited about the prospect of completing her studies than she is nervous about her examinations. She may have to sneak out of the office a little more often than usual now. She’s going to have to amp up the gift-giving just be sure all the bases are covered, she thinks. She means to reward John especially. John has been so helpful through everything and deserves something special. He is the one who makes sure the bosses are none the wiser when she is gone hours at a time. It has not been an easy road, and what would she have done without this job? The job was how she could pay her way through college. She puts in plenty of work at the office everyday, she reasons, so the few office hours she’s had to miss for school shouldn’t really count.
The thing is … they do.
TIME-LOSS (LILIAN) — 8 HOURS PER WEEK
JOHN is the office clown and prankster. Everyone loves John. John is not the most disciplined fellow, but he is fiercely loyal to his friends. He is the unofficial workplace gopher — if you’ve got a sensitive task, send John on it and consider it done. Only, he is going to steal an extra 20 minutes or so on your errand for himself. He gets the job done, no less. His weakness, if one must know, is sports betting; so every excursion from the office is an excuse to quickly nip down to the betting station and place what he’s sure is a winner. He has never won anything substantial though. John is very fond of his superiors at the office, particularly Aunty Lilian. She even got him an iPhone last year. They are all very good to him, and as long as they need him to, he’ll run their errands — After all, the things a minion like himself does cannot hurt the company.
The thing is … they can.
TIME-LOSS (JOHN) — 4 HOURS 30 MINUTES PER WEEK
We will stop with John since you get the idea. There are a few more like these four at that office, but these will suffice for our story. David and Beatrice and Lilian and John all work for a company that trades in energy, you see. In relative terms, this is a successful company. The company prefers to ‘not sweat the small stuff’, and it keeps its eyes on the ball — on the big trade deals. There isn’t any significant investment in HR or workforce management, no time recorder for attendance either, and so no time log for that workplace. It doesn’t occur to them yet that they might need timekeeping — because, if the profits are pouring in, then it must mean operations are running well enough. If it ain’t broke why fix it, right?
Numbers will tell. Let’s run the math with just these 4 individuals. Cumulatively, the 4 of them are costing the company 1,020 work hours every year. Now, say the average productivity of an employee at that company has been worked out to $27 an hour; these 4 persons alone are causing that company to lose $27,540 per annum by their overlooked absence.
These numbers are significant. No matter the scale of operations, company lost time is like a leak on the side of a vessel — even the smallest leak on the largest vessel will empty it out eventually. The common challenge is that organizations lose time in tiny, missable pockets with no time recorder or attendance check. These pockets add up to big numbers in time.
It’s just like the math says:
How about you rid yourself of that absenteeism problem permanently. Well then, iClocker is the time and attendance management solution that’s just right for your organization. With iClocker, no employee absence will ever again go unnoticed. Stop bleeding company funds to lost-time, and keep your employees satisfied with iClocker’s easy and fun clocking process.
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