Work absence is a critical practice in the world since the consistent presence of workers in the workplace is essential to attaining the aims of any department or institution. As a result, the management might fail to realize its targets. Thus, this paper will enlarge the understanding of the field by checking the matter at the Wa Municipal Education Office as the case analysis. Absenteeism impacts the general work productivity, and, consequently, can be thought of as the antithesis of output because productivity is zero through times of absence. Even though the consequence of personnel absenteeism on output is certain, some institutions might dismiss the need to assess their management procedures.
Work absence is a serious practice on the globe since consistent attendance of employees at the workplace is critical to accomplishing the goals of any institution or department. Scholars link employee absenteeism to backlogs, low productivity, and work delay [
Absenteeism can be classified based on the reasons that prompt employees to miss work. Absenteeism often occurs because of low commitment by the administration, illnesses, and dissatisfaction with the job [
Staff absenteeism is a major problem that affects many sectors of the economy. It leads to a considerable cost to any institution, even when the administration does not pay the absent employee [
There are no official statistics regarding the cost of staff absenteeism to Ghana’s economy. However, findings from other parts of the planet may provide invaluable insight into the issue. For instance, the United Kingdom lost billions of dollars after employees in the country failed to report to work for a total of 137 million days in 2016 [
Clearly, the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service often finds it exceedingly challenging to reduce the degree of staff absenteeism, lower administrative costs, and increase employee productivity. However, this issue adversely affects the economic and social growth of a country [
Staff absenteeism is indeed a challenging issue to the top management of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service.
Work absence, which can be involuntary or voluntary, arises from various issues. Research proves that absenteeism is a multifactorial phenomenon [
Most organisations find it problematic to address staff absenteeism because the management does not realize the complexity of factors causing the problem. Unfortunately, relatively few organizations conduct research to gain insight into the causes of work absences within their firms. Furthermore, most studies focusing on the subject examine the issue of voluntary absence and the health condition of workers. Nonetheless, Nicholson’s theory of attachment demonstrates that other factors, such as a person’s maturity and age, contribute to staff absenteeism [
The mental and physical wellbeing of an individual is an important determinant of his or her health status. Indeed, poor mental and physical wellbeing are key contributors to a high absence rate. Interestingly, many studies focusing on work absences do not consider the impact of these critical factors on absenteeism. Scholars often ignore the health of an employee as a cause of absenteeism since diseases are categorized in the “involuntary” absence group. However, it is worth remembering that most organizations suffer from the issue of ‘short-term’ absences arising from minor illnesses. Consequently, it is important to consider minor illness an important variable while conducting research on this subject.
Usually, individuals who miss work because of self-limiting conditions such as minor illnesses are healthy enough to attend to their duties at the workplace. This observation is consistent with the A-B continuum, which is reported in Nicholson’s attachment theory [
Mental or emotional strain refers to people’s response to the challenge of balancing certain demands based on their capacity to meet them. Stress is amongst the most reported causes of long-term staff absenteeism. This issue eventually causes ill health. American College of Cardiology [
Stress affects many individuals and organisations. However, the management of many organisations lacks knowledge of the way to address it [
Most people only consider the negative impacts of stress on an employee. However, researchers state that stress also has positive effects on workers based on the extent of the agent that causes the strain. Previous research on the relationship between stress and work absences usually assesses the impact of the emotional strain based on the “acute stress response” (“Flight or Fight” response) [
Many organisations have not implemented effective measures to prevent workplace stress. In the meantime, [
An organisation can employ a three-step mechanism to manage the problem of staff absenteeism arising from stress. Firstly, employers should assess the factors that are responsible for workplace stress. They can accomplish this goal by reviewing the set procedures and policies. Secondly, the management should engage every member of staff in stress management practices to lower the level of employees’ stress. It should consistently assess the workers’ condition. Lastly, the administration ought to evaluate the progress of the implemented programs and processes and make relevant adjustments regularly. This strategy plays an important role in enhancing future implementations of the appropriate programs and stress management measures. Nevertheless, businesses must set realistic objectives. Hence, firms should develop strict policies to curb the growing concern of work absences.
Work-life balance focuses on the extent to which employees achieve equal degrees of satisfaction and engagement in their personal and social life and work performance. This factor has a considerable impact on the performance of people. In particular, individuals who have the capacity to split their time between their careers and other aspects of life tend to perform better than their colleagues. A person with a healthy work-life balance assigns a priority to his or her community duties, household, and work. However, it is exceedingly challenging for many people to effectively perform these responsibilities. [
An increase in the workload of a worker adversely affects the person’s WLB. Indeed, people view WLB as the assessment of a worker’s capacity to manage the work, family, and personal responsibilities effectively. However, “balance” is a subjective assessment that differs according to people’s views. For instance, a person may gain satisfaction from spending more time in the workplace, while another can appreciate having more time at home. Nonetheless, many scholars concur that relatively long working hours tend to cause family-work conflict, which contributes to staff absenteeism [
The purpose of this study is to assess the causes and effects of staff absenteeism at the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service. Consequently, it will help in understanding the effects of work absence on routine work. The findings will enlighten human resource managers on the extent of employee absenteeism and the measures of reducing its prevalence. In his article, [
The negative impacts of absenteeism determine the importance of addressing this problem. Work absences negatively impact business growth, productivity, and operations [
The assessment has revealed how the management of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service feels about dealing with the problem of staff absenteeism that seems intractable. The findings will, therefore, not only be adding to existing knowledge on how to deal with staff absenteeism, but also provide a pathway for dealing with similar issues elsewhere in the country and the world at large.
Researchers assert that workplace absenteeism is a major cause of direct and indirect costs [
This would also serve as a source of historical knowledge for the staff of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service. In fact, lost work-time makes it challenging for employers to achieve the objective of an organisation and attain high productivity levels [
Research methodology is an essential element of research because it details the steps taken in conducting a study. The latter facilitates and positively influences the discipline being studied. The paradigm, approach, and method are examined. The rationale behind the appropriate choice of procedures and processes that were applied to achieve the study objectives is therefore explained.
As of June 2018, the study population consisted of 68 staff of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service (48 male and 20 female). The age range of the staff was between 38 years and 60 years. Also, the work experience of the staff was between 15 years to 35 years of work experience. The sample size was 37 staff (27 male and 10 female). Four of the participants were the heads of their respective departments, namely the Finance and Administration Department, Human Resource Department, Planning Department and Supervision Department. While all the 7 management members were purposively sampled, the other participants were selected through simple random sampling. Participants were both management and staff. Management of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service is made up of the Municipal Director of Education, the four Frontline Deputy Directors and some senior officials at the Municipal office. The researcher used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to collect data. The researcher also made use of the information from the staff attendance register.
Data analysis involves the preparation and organisation of data into meaningful groups, including the search for conceivable patterns and existing relationships. All item responses were analysed. Data analysis was done based on these research questions:
1) What causes employee absences in the workplaces?
2) What are management’s assessments of staff absences?
3) Are the existing practices for managing absences effective?
4) What are the best measures to address staff absenteeism?
When the staff was asked to indicate the reasons behind their last absence from work, 64% of them noted non-illness related causes. Absenteeism that was illness-related consisted of physical and mental illnesses. Non-illness reasons included personal issues, family issues, stress, practical issues, looking for another job, and job dissatisfaction. Issues such as child naming ceremony, funeral occasion and attendance at religious as well as traditional festivals are the main causes of non-illness absenteeism of the staff of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education service. Sickness and stress were also mentioned as causes of staff absenteeism.
The majority of management considered absenteeism as costly and negatively affecting the productivity of the organisation. However, only about half of the total management indicated absenteeism as a serious concern in the workplace while less than half of staff considered an absence as an issue of concern for the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service. It was therefore revealed that the problem of staff absenteeism was of grave concern to both management and staff of the Wa Municipal Education office of the Ghana Education Service. The study found that 87% of management agreed that absenteeism is costly for the organisation (
The 83% of management agreed that absenteeism negatively affects output (
Staff usually provides medical notes from physicians. However, only 8% of staff consider it as an adequate absenteeism management practice. It was revealed
that the existing practice of asking staff to submit a physician note before being granted permission to go on sick leave is not an effective mechanism for granting sick leave to staff. Also, the staff attendance book is not closely supervised by management hence its existence is not of relevance in curbing staff absenteeism at the Wa Municipal Education office of the Ghana Education Service.
Management generally understands that health and stress issues contribute to absenteeism, and 87% noted that (
stated that organisations do not create a wellness-supported environment at workplaces (
The findings revealed that strategies should be implemented to ensure improvement in managing the problem of staff absenteeism at the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service. Management should ensure staff receives enough rest periods for the reduction of fatigue. Also, staff should consider unauthorised absence as an issue of utmost significance, so as not to compromise the level of commitment required to control absenteeism. Furthermore, clear and sound workplace policies should manage absenteeism, including fair and adequate discipline, which is designed to deter employees and promote a culture committed to lessening absenteeism.
The findings further revealed that the management of the Wa Municipal Education office of the Ghana Education Service should ensure that sick leave regulations and the process of presenting medical notes should be well defined to eliminate confusion on the necessary actions when needed. Additionally, employees should be counseled as a precondition to disciplinary action. Consistent disciplinary measures should be implemented. Moreover, habitual offenders should face appropriate disciplinary consequences henceforth. Meanwhile,
management should also formulate procedures for investigating absences that the staff cannot control. Past employee records should be consulted before determining the appropriate course of action. Hence, management should not only track and measure absenteeism to promote attendance, but also should discuss it with the employees turning it into a team effort.
Staffs of the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education service who are of the habit of absenting themselves from work do that based on non-illness issues. The main causes of staff absenteeism relates to issues such as child naming ceremony, funeral occasion and attendance at religious as well as traditional festivals.
Staff absenteeism at the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service affects the overall work productivity, and, thus, can be regarded as the antithesis of output since productivity is zero during periods of absence. Although the implication of staff absenteeism on output is inevitable, some institutions may ignore the need to review their management practices.
It is instructive to note that measures put in place to curb staff absenteeism at the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service are not effective.
Management should isolate predominant causes of absenteeism, identifying legitimate incidences, regular offenders, and illegitimate absences enable it to employ sufficient measures targeting specific factors. Effective policies should be implemented with the management ensuring that all employees completely understand such systems. Moreover, the possible repercussions that may follow for failing to adhere to such policies should be well outlined and explained.
Furthermore, a committee should be made to engage the staff in addressing all aspects surrounding absenteeism regularly. To ensure that disciplinary records and attendance are updated, a timely action should be a priority, enabling management to make appropriate decisions according to each case of absenteeism. Attendance incentives should be applied for employees to associate positively for regularly reporting for duty.
・ Staff absenteeism: Unscheduled absence of a person from his or her place of work.
・ Productivity: The deliberate conversion of labour, capital, and other input resources into the required outputs.
・ Strategies: The assessment and directing of the much-needed resources to accomplish a specific objective or address a critical issue.
・ Voluntary absenteeism: The decision of a person to avoid reporting to work due to unsatisfactory reasons [
Factors that are beyond the scope of the person conducting a study may impact the research. For instance, the paper focuses on the Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service, which constitutes a major limitation. Scholars argue that a small sample makes it exceedingly difficult to generalise study outcomes and conclusions to similar settings and situations. In fact, the research will include the responses of a few employees due to time constraints. The short time span will make it extremely challenging to interview all respondents and gather the much-needed information. Similarly, the process of answering all the questions that will be included in the questionnaire may require much time, particularly if the respondents do not understand the key terms and concepts. Besides, the limited scope of information regarding the causes and impacts of absenteeism may affect the findings. Indeed, having a keen interest in factors that the management of Wa Municipal Education Office can control may negatively impact data collection. This issue may occur since other factors that are beyond the scope of the administrators can reduce productivity and the rate of absenteeism. Importantly, the subjects may fail to express their views on the topic frankly, which is likely to contribute to response bias. Hence, a number of factors associated with the scope of the study and the target audience may adversely impact the research findings.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Salih, H.B. (2018) Staff Absenteeism: The Case of Wa Municipal Education Office of the Ghana Education Service. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 6, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2018.68001