Sick of Employee Illness? Reduce Office Absenteeism with These 3 Tips
Sick leave (also known as 'absenteeism') costs employers like you over $27.5 billion per year. At an average of almost 9 sick days per employee per year, absenteeism could cause a small business to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in sick pay. If you want to increase productivity, reduce costs, and stay on schedules, use these 3 tips to reduce sick days at your office.
Bring in Plants
Take a leaf out of the eco-warriors' book and use the power of plants to reduce employee illness. Plants improve air quality by removing carbon dioxide, dust, and toxins from the atmosphere, reducing airborne viruses and bacteria. They can also reduce stress, fatigue, and many other common causes of employee illness. Plants have dozens of unmatched health benefits, and Dr Leonard Perry reports that bringing them into the office could reduce absenteeism by 14%. You can buy plants or hire them depending on your needs. Try to get a mix of desk plants and small tree-like plants for communal areas. You may want to avoid buying or hiring flowering plants, as their pollen could cause hayfever and other allergic reactions.
Keep it Clean
Hiring a good commercial cleaning service does more than just keep up appearances. Did you know that the average office desk has 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat? If you don't keep these germs at bay, you'll find that illnesses spread from employee to employee like wildfire. Some of the most germ-ridden places in the office, like door handles, are frequently ignored by cleaning teams. Flu viruses can survive on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours -- imagine how many of your workers could become infected during that period of time. Make sure you choose a company who will target as many problem areas as possible. For more information, contact a local cleaning service.
Allow More Sick Days
Allowing more absenteeism isn't as crazy as it sounds. Believe it or not, there's something worse than sick employees being absent at work -- sick employees being present. 'Presenteeism' is when employees come to work despite being sick, and studies indicate that it costs employers more than absenteeism does. Not only do ill employees perform poorly, they also transmit their illness to others. Discouraging employees from coming to work when ill may result in 1 or 2 more employees "playing sick", but it will lead to far fewer workers actually becoming infected.