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.