"2002 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey"
No author cited
CCH Human Resources, January 2003.
The 12th annual “CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey” found that the average per-employee cost of absenteeism rose to an all-time high of $789 in 2002. This is up from $755 per employee in 2001. The higher cost comes in spite of a slight decline in the rate of absenteeism – from 2.2 in 2001 to 2.1 in 2002.
According to the study, a little over two-thirds of all absences were not health related. The majority were due to personal issues such as family matters (24 percent), attending to personal needs (21 percent), stress (12 percent) or an entitlement mentality (10 percent). The survey also found that morale affects a company’s absenteeism rate. Organizations reporting very good to good morale had a lower absenteeism rate (1.9) than those reporting fair to poor morale (2.4).
On a positive note, the study discovered that work-life and paid time-off programs were effective in combating high absenteeism. Nevertheless, 83 percent of the study’s respondents did not feel that absenteeism would decline anytime in the near future.
