Reducing Employee Absenteeism

It is well documented that stress is one of the driving forces behind the rising rate of costly unscheduled absenteeism. A recent study by CCH, Inc. shows that almost two thirds of all unscheduled absences are for reasons other than Personal Illness. But exactly what is stress, where does it come from, and how does that relate to employee legal needs?

Job Stress Defined

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines job stress as "the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when job requirements do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the employee.”

Stress and Absenteeism

Today's fast-paced life-style exacts its toll. A recent CCH survey indicates the reason most employees call in sick at the last minute is driven more by personal issues than physical illness. Personal Illness remains the leading reason for unscheduled absences (33 percent), but two out of three absences were for other reasons.

An increasing number of employees missed work at the last minute because of Family Issues (24 percent) and Personal Needs (21 percent) – with Personal Needs keeping people at home nearly twice as often in 2002 as in 2001, when it was 11 percent.

The Causes of Stress

Employees can be placed under a great deal of stress by everyday life situations. This includes family problems, bad financial planning, debt collection, identity theft, and many others. The employee needs to spend time (a limited resource) to deal with a life situation, but can't because their job requires them to spend that time at work. Most times the solution requires legal services, which requires the employee to spend even more time away from work. Add the fact that legal services are unfamiliar and confusing to most employees, making the need for legal services a double-edged sword that causes tremendous amounts of stress, which is the root cause of costly absenteeism, turnover, and on-the-job accidents.

The Cost of Stress

The cost of stress is staggering. The American Institute of Stress (AIS) puts it at $300 billion annually, which includes “accidents, absenteeism, employee turnover, diminished productivity, direct medical, legal, and insurance costs, workers' compensation awards as well as tort and FELA [Federal Employers’ Liability Act] judgments.”

Actual costs per employee run about $798 per year, according to CCH, Inc. in their 2002 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. In fact, when the costs of stress-related illness is factored in, the cost of stress may be much higher than $300 billion. Newsweek magazine devoted considerable space to the impact of emotional stress in its cover feature “The New Sciences of Mind and Body” (Sept. 27, 2004). It shows much evidence that stress is correlated with heart disease (and many other medical problems) and that reducing stress can boost one’s immune system and help control diabetes. According to Newsweek, many experts find that 60-90 percent of all doctor visits are stress-related. The medical costs are indeed enormous!

Solving the Problem

Many ideas have been presented to lessen the impact of stress on the employee. Some have tried flex time, but found that flex time is not effective when there is much to learn on short notice (as legal matters require) or unforeseen issues arise (as happens in many life situations). Others have tried pre-paid legal plans or basic group legal services to reduce the cost of legal services, but again found the results lacking because legal issues require so much time on short notice. What is really needed is a truly comprehensive group legal plan combined with the personalized assistance of an expert trained to help the employees navigate more easily in the increasingly complex legal industry. A good example of this type of assistance is found in the Legal Access Plans' unique Personalized Assistance Specialist (PAS). The PAS help employees select the best attorney for their case, ask their attorney the right questions, and perform other tasks pertinent to an individual employee's case.

All advice to reduce employee absenteeism and group legal plan evaluation
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