Small Businesses Brace For Absenteeism Ahead Of Long Weekend

With the upcoming Good Friday and Easter long weekend, it is critical for every employer to understand employee entitlements and the impact of absenteeism on their bottom line. Each time a long weekend comes around, it creates an increased likelihood of a small business owner making an unintentional payment mistake and that risk is heightened when they are busy trying to cover for last minute gaps in staffing.

Laurence McLean, Associate Director from Employsure New Zealand commented, “One of the challenges that long weekends pose is absenteeism. When unplanned absences are frequent and start forming a pattern, it has every likelihood of impacting the employee's performance at work and that of their colleagues as they will be left with an additional workload. When this happens, staff begin disengaging and start taking time off work; leading to increased absenteeism, decreased productivity, and reduced revenue.”

“There are additional financial costs for employers to factor in such as lost work, administrative costs in managing absences, and employee replacement costs if absences are a long-term issue. SMEs will not be able to cope with employee absenteeism especially when it comes on top of inflation and rising costs of living. In certain industries such as hospitality and retail, the effects of absenteeism can mean delays and slower customer service leading to frustrated customers which will have a negative impact on the business’s reputation.”

“Businesses must have policies and processes in place that can help them manage absenteeism and handle long weekends. Employsure has leveraged its expertise and created specific [1]resources and assets to support business owners in understanding the public holiday entitlements and managing employee absenteeism,” concluded Laurence.

[1] Your Guide to Public Holidays | Employsure NZ

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