As flu season approaches, more employees may be calling in sick. But how many of those illnesses are actually just a case of the Mondays? According to CareerBuilder’s latest survey, of workers have called in to work sick when they were feeling just fine over the past year.
When asked why they lied about being sick, 28 percent said they just didn’t feel like going in to work, and 27 percent took the day off to attend a doctor’s appointment. Another 24 percent did it simply to relax, 18 percent wanted to catch up on sleep, and 11 percent took the day off to run personal errands.
What this means for you
While you would like to think all of your employees are 100 percent honest with you all of the time, that is simply not reality. Before you start requiring every employee to bring a signed note from the doctor to prove they actually were sick, however, take a moment to consider their motivation. Several employees who called in sick when they were well did so for reasons relating to work/life balance.
With that in mind, it may be time to re-evaluate your PTO (paid time off) policy and see if it is truly meeting your employees’ needs. Or maybe you could consider letting your employees work from home once a week — which will give them time back in their day to run personal errands, attend doctor’s appointments or catch up on sleep.
Giving employees the support they need to maintain a healthy work/life balance not only benefits them – it benefits your business, too. After all, companies that foster a healthy work/life balance see higher levels of employee satisfaction, morale and productivity. As a result, retention rates improve, and so does the bottom line.
