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Last updated: 22 June 2006

Fostering an attendance culture: A guide for APS agencies

Section 4: Causes of workplace absence

Understanding the cause of workplace absence is not always straightforward—absence behaviour is variable and complex. For the same individual, absence is likely to have different causes at different times and in different contexts.

In broad terms, there are three major influences on attendance:

Ability:¹⁸ Illness or injury
Barriers: Non-work related factors (e.g. carer responsibilities, emergencies etc)
Motivation:¹⁹ Attitudes and behaviours associated with a lack of motivation to attend (e.g. low job satisfaction, non-commitment to the organisation, workplace tension or individual work ethic).

The level of discretion exercised by employees can also be a factor. The ANAO refers to absences as either:

involuntary and unavoidable—caused by sickness or injury sufficiently severe to render the employee unfit for normal work duties
voluntary and avoidable—when employees take time off work although they are not medically unfit for normal work duties.²⁰

Cases where the individual’s motivation is the cause are generally known as the sickie. The degree to which workplace absences are a symptom of individual, managerial, organisational or other factors will vary considerably between agencies as will the degree to which the absences are avoidable.

Although, some estimate that where rates are high, as much as 40-50% of absences can be avoided.²¹ The key to designing interventions that are well targeted and effective is recognising that the causes of workplace absence are multifactorial and interrelated.

Ability to attend

Not surprisingly, the majority of workplace absence is due to ill health, from common short-term seasonal illnesses through to more complex health and lifestyle factors. It is worth noting that:

minor illness is the number one cause of short-term absence²²
associations exist between smoking, alcohol and drug use, general health, body mass index, levels of physical activity and absence²³
pre-existing mental health issues such as major depression impact on attendance. Approximately 6.7 % of employees experience clinically significant depressive symptoms in any year, and take more time off work relative to other employees.²⁴

Illness and injury does not always arise from the individual’s personal circumstances, but can also be the result of work factors.²⁵ For example poor occupational health and safety practices, highly repetitive or physical work, and work related pressure and stress all rate highly as causes of illness and injury.

Barriers to attendance

A range of non-work related factors such as individual characteristics and family responsibilities may contribute to a person’s workplace absence. Research on individual characteristics has indicated links between age and gender and workplace absence. For example:

The ANAO cites findings from one APS agency that employees aged 60 years and over and less than 25 years had higher rates of absence than other employees. The same agency also found that females had higher rates of sick and carer’s leave than males.²⁶
A UK study found differences between the attendance of older and younger people, as well as single and married people. The study also found women with caring responsibilities were more likely to be absent than males, although this pattern disappeared if data only included accident and illness.²⁷

These findings should not be considered in isolation, as they fail to consider the full impact of the work environment, a limitation acknowledged by the UK study. To develop a true understanding of such patterns, they should be viewed in the context of other workplace factors that may also be driving absences, for example the level and role of the employee.²⁸

Family responsibilities are another major contributor to workplace absence rates. Carer’s leave allows employees to provide occasional care for their children, or injured, ill, frail or disabled relatives. The State of the Service Employee Survey Results 2004-05 found that:

39% of respondents had a caring responsibility, of which 79% cared for children aged 16 years or younger
in the 12 months prior to the survey, 64% of employees with carer responsibilities had used one to five days leave to provide care at short notice; a further 25% had used six or more days.²⁹

There are also a range of other unforseen and uncontrollable circumstances, which act as barriers to attendance. Household and family emergencies as well as bereavement and compassionate situations often require an employee to spend time away from the workplace.

Motivation to attend

Workplace factors

The work context (how the work is organised) and the work content (what the job involves)³⁰ contribute to stress levels, job satisfaction, commitment and motivation, which in turn impact on attendance.³¹ Good working conditions and job design are known to impact positively on morale and engagement, encouraging employees to come to work.³²

Key aspects of work context include:

Organisational culture and function—the employee’s role in the organisation, career development opportunities and interactions with colleagues and customers.³³
Classification levels and team size—lower classifications, and larger teams show higher rates of absence.³⁴
Rostered work arrangements—where it is easier to call in sick than to negotiate time off.
Customer service roles—in particular call centres show higher absence levels.³⁵ Issues such as efficiency demands and performance monitoring; service encounters and managing customers; employee–job fit; support structures and human resource management have been identified as causing stress and absences.³⁶
‘Mental health days’—appear common practice in some APS customer service areas especially following confrontations or other difficult situations. Comcare has noted the unique risk factors in providing customer services, with emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction and ill health resulting from the strain of emotional work and dealing with difficult customers.³⁷
Organisational change—has been linked to stress related complaints including increased blood pressure, back and neck pain and lower psychological wellbeing.³⁸
Uncertainty or job insecurity—anticipation or concern about job loss can be as damaging as job loss itself.³⁹ Links have been found between job insecurity, a deterioration of psychological health and job and organisational withdrawal.⁴⁰ Feelings of lack of control, not being listened to, and not being consulted can further increase uncertainty and anxiety.

Key aspects of work content include:

Skill requirement—roles that require low level skills often have higher rates of absence. Issues such as skill variety, irrelevant and insignificant work tasks, little autonomy, and a lack of feedback on performance contribute to employees feeling disengaged.⁴¹
Job monotony—repetitive processes, the lack of individual control of work, and the inability to utilise skills fully also contribute to workplace absences.⁴²

Work-related stress and in some cases psychological injury can result from a combination of a number of work context and content elements.⁴³ Poor relationships with superiors, lack of control over work, low participation in decision-making, low levels of support and poor communication are just some of the risk factors.⁴⁴

Research undertaken by Comcare found that:

Psychological injury is a significant driver of compensation costs, with claims equating to over a quarter of the cost of premiums and characterised by longer periods of time off work with higher medical, legal and other claim payments.
Within the Australian Government, work pressures account for 50% of psychological injury claims, with the next largest cause being harassment/bullying.
Employees making claims for psychological injury take two to four times more unplanned leave than other employees, prior to submitting a claim.⁴⁵

Leadership style and management practices

The impact managers have on staff attendance should not be underestimated. Management style, behaviour, management hierarchy and allocation of responsibility are all clearly linked to absence rates.⁴⁶ Poor leadership at the senior management level can generate low morale across an organisation. Low morale has been linked to the reason why employees call in sick at the last minute.⁴⁷ One United States survey found that organisations with good/very good morale experienced absence rates of 1.5 %, whereas those reporting poor/fair morale experienced rates of 3.2%.⁴⁸

An Irish study found poor employee-manager relationships was resulting in reduced morale, increased stress, low levels of commitment and high rates of workplace absences. Staff indicated that they did not feel valued by management, were not encouraged to use their initiative, felt poor quality relationships frequently existed, thought there was a lack of trust and mutual respect, and felt over-managed and under led.⁴⁹

Leadership styles and management practices cover a broad spectrum. At one extreme is a style colloquially referred to as the ‘toxic manager’. This type is characterised by aggressive, overly critical and divisive management behaviours that often result in increased absences, high turnover and psychological injury. Similarly overly directive (command and control) and overly supportive (popular) leadership styles are also linked with increased workplace absence.

Even where good management exists, the extent to which managers proactively deal with individual cases, and the extent to which they feel confident and supported by the organisation can impact on attendance. Problematic absences will continue to exist if managers lack the confidence to have difficult conversations and the support to take action when required.

Entitlement culture

A number of APS agencies have indicated that there is a strong entitlement culture in at least some sections of their organisation. Anecdotally, it appears that there are employees who use all their sick leave, with the view that it is their right to do so. In an effort to change this view some agencies are now stressing that leave provisions are an employee’s insurance against future illness rather than an entitlement that must be used. Factors influencing an entitlement culture include:

individual work values and attitude, and employee expectations regarding their rights to access leave
the presence of generous leave provisions, with higher leave provisions resulting in more leave being used
management practices around interpreting and applying leave provisions
cultural aspects of the organisation or work area that impact on how employees interpret what are acceptable practices and expectations concerning attendance. Through the collective behaviour of others, individuals learn how much absence is tolerated⁵⁰
the use of the term entitlement. Some agencies are now removing the word from workplace agreements when describing leave provisions.

18 Steers R., & Rhodes, S., 1978, ‘Major influences on employee attendance: A process model’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol, 63, No. 4, p. 391-407, p. 401 (Steers & Rhodes, 1978)

19 Steers & Rhodes, 1978, p. 401

20 ANAO, 2003, p.9

21 Auditor General Western Australia, 1997, p. 1

22 Chartered Institute of Personal and Development, 2005, Absence Management: A Survey of Policy and Practice, 2005, http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/386495B0-8D7B-491B-AD3E-F968DCF38CE7/0/absmgmnt0705.pdf, p.20. This UK survey of over 800 manufacturing, private, public and non-profit organisations found that minor illness (colds, upset stomachs and headaches) was the number one cause of short-term absence across all categories of employees in all four sectors

23 Bevan, S., 2003, Absence Management, The Work Foundation, http://www.theworkfoundation.com, p. 18 (Bevan, 2003), and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2005, ‘Obesity and workplace absenteeism among older Australians, Bulletin, Issue 31, Australian Government, Canberra, pp. 1-14

24 Hilton, M. & Whiteford, H., 2005, The Cost of Depression, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=46

25 Comcare, 2005b, Working Well: An Organisational Approach to Preventing Psychological Injury, http://www.comcare.gov.au/pdf_files/PUB47_working_well-16-06-05.pdf, p.35 (Comcare, 2005b)

26 ANAO, 2003, p. 17

27 Bridges, S. & Mumford, K., 2000, ‘Absenteeism in the UK: A comparison across genders’, Discussion Papers in Economics, No. 2000/12, Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/econ/dp/0012.pdf, p. 7. The study drew on responses from the 1993 Family Expenditure Survey which included a random sample of 10,000 private households.

28 See ANAO, 2003, p. 40

29 Australian Public Service Commission, 2005, State of the Service Employee Survey Results 2004-2005, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, p. 11-12

30 Comcare. 2005b, p. 9

31 See Bevan, 2003 for further discussion.

32 See Wellins, R.S., Bernthal, P. & Phelps, M., 2005, Employee Engagement: The Key to Realizing Competitive Advantage, Development Dimensions International, http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_employeeengagement_mg.pdf (Wellins et al, 2005) for further discussion

33 Comcare, 2005b, p. 10

34 ANAO, 2003, p.41

35 Hallis, 2004, The Hallis 2003-2004 Turnover and Absenteeism Survey, http://www.hallis.com.au/research_surveys/survey_summary_customers.pdf; see also ANAO, 2003

36 Dean, A.M. & Rainnie, A., 2004, ‘Absenteesim from the frontline: Explaining employee stress and withdrawal in a call centre’, Department of Management Working Paper Series, Working Paper 71/04, Monash University, p. 2; 10, http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mgt/research/working-papers/2004/wp71-04.pdf

37 Comcare, 2005b, p. 14

38 Donaldson, 2002, cited in National Audit Office, 2005, Current Thinking in Managing Attendance: A Short Guide for HR Professionals, p. 11, http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/04-05/040518_researchpaper.pdf

39 Pollard, 2001, cited in NAO, 2005, p. 11

40 Dekker & Schaufeli, 1995 cited in NAO, 2005, p. 11

41 Parkes, S.K., & Wall, T.D., 1998, ‘The heyday of job design and research, 1950-1980’, in Job and Work Design: Organizing Work to Promote Well Being and Effectiveness, Sage Publication, California, Chapter 2, pp. 9-2442 ANAO, 2003, p.31

43 Comcare, 2005b, p. 5

44 Comcare, 2005b, p. 10

45 Comcare, 2005b, p. 9; 7

46 Bennett, H., 2002, ‘Employee commitment: The key to absence management in local government?, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, Vol 23, Iss 8, pp. 430441, http://proquest.umi.com, p. 430 (Bennett, 2002)

47 CCH Press Release, 2005, Costly Problem of Unscheduled Absenteeism Continues to Perplex Employers, http://hr.cch.com/topic-spotlight/hrm/101205a.asp

48 CCH Press Release, 2005. The 2005 CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey covers 323 human resource executives in US companies and organisations of all sizes and across major industry segments in 46 states. The survey is based on randomly polled organisations with an estimated total of more than 1 million employees. See www.hr.cch.com.

49 Bennet, 2002, p. 439

50 Gellatly & Luchak, 1998, in Bennet, 2002, p. 431

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