Are sick-day policies in critical condition?By Suzanne MartinRobyn Kratzer, NASE Member and owner of Renaissance Woman Communications Inc. in Park City, Utah, admits that her company has no written sick-day policy. Whenever her two employees need a day off for personal reasons, she accommodates them. "We're fairly flexible about illnesses and family demands," Kratzer says. "Right now, employees get one week of vacation time after six months with the company. We don't have any absolute number of sick days or personal days an employee can take, but they're paid for their time off, whatever the reason." The reasons employees give for needing a day off are changing dramatically according to Riverwoods, Ill.-based CCH Inc., a leading provider of human resources information. In a 1996 national absenteeism survey conducted by CCH, employees cited personal illness as a reason for being absent just 28 percent of the time, down from 45 percent in 1995. Employees also reported family issues as a reason for absenteeism 26 percent of the time, down slightly from 1995. But those decreases were countered with upswings in absences for personal needs, stress and because employees felt, "Hey, I'm entitled to a day off." Small-business owners who have only a few employees, or those considering hiring for the first time in the near future, need to be aware that the CCH survey raises doubts about the usefulness and value of the traditional sick-day concept. "One very important conclusion we can draw from the survey is that sick time is out of sync with the times," says Paul Gibson, a human resources analyst with CCH. "While people still need time away from work for personal illness, other factors are significant contributors to lost productivity." Lost productivity isn't the only hardship experienced by small businesses when employees take unscheduled absences. Employers must often pay overtime to employees who pick up the slack for a missing coworker. For businesses with only a few employees, the unexpected loss of one person for even one day can mean a decrease in customer service and loss of business. Kratzer says that her current employees don't abuse their time-off privileges and they're careful not to put the small company in a bind by taking untimely unscheduled absences. But she anticipates adding at least two more employees in 1997. When that happens, Kratzer says her two-year-old company will be challenged with defining time-off benefits. "As the company grows, I'll definitely have to define the vacation policy and the sick-day policy in writing. Even with just four or five employees, I think those policies have to be in place." Kratzer may find herself actually rewriting those long-established policies. As the CCH survey shows, employees of the 1990s still fall ill. They also need time to recoup from a job's mental stress, nurse sick children and provide elder care. And in many cases, employees use the traditional "sick day" to tend to those other needs. So how can small-business owners modernize sick-day policies to accommodate their companies and employees at the same time? The CCH survey shows that businesses of all sizes are successfully instituting banks of paid time off. An employee's vacation, personal and sick time are lumped into a single pool that can be drawn upon for any reason at any time. Absences, for whatever reason, are deducted from that pool of accrued days. The aim of bundling time is to reduce the number of unscheduled absences by giving employees the flexibility to schedule time off as needed. For instance, if an employee knows he will need to taxi an elder parent to a doctor's appointment, he can schedule the time off in advance, rather than calling in "sick" on the day of the appointment. Or if an employee needs a personal day to attend a special event, she can schedule the time away from the job instead of skipping work at the last minute and leaving her employer in the lurch. Bundling time still sets limits on the total number of paid days off employees receive, but the concept helps small-business owners plan ahead for missing workers. It encourages employees to be more honest about reporting the real reason they need a day off. That, in turn, helps build trust between workers and employers. With those kinds of benefits, Kratzer says bundling time might be just the answer for her company's new time-off policy in 1997. For more information about absenteeism policies, visit the CCH
Business Owner's Toolkit.
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Reasons for taking sick daysA national survey shows that many employees take off "sick days" for reasons other than personal illness. 1995Entitlement Stress Family Issues Personal Illness Personal Needs 1996Entitlement Stress Family Issues Personal Illness Personal Needs |