What would be at the top of a list of attributes you would want your ideal employee to have? It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that bring present and doing their work would be highly desirable… but what about when an employee shows up to the detriment of either themselves and/or your business?
This is known as presenteeism. If you haven’t heard of this term before, it refers to a situation where an employee attends work but is not productive/does not perform to the best of their abilities and that merely being in the workplace is not in and of itself enough.
Presenteeism will likely not be a novel concept but there can be multiple causes
The first is often that an employee is unwell. What kind of an impact can showing up to work unwell have on both the employee and the rest of the team?
Other than the obvious strain attending work can have on the individual who is unwell, it also means that colleagues may struggle to engage with the employee, and they may have concerns that they themselves become unwell. It could also put pressure on others to show up to work when not feeling well and creating a culture you had not intended.
The other cause is often underperformance and employees equating attending work with performance. Whilst it may seem obvious that one leads to the other that is often not the case.
Employees will often not intend to underperform but over a period of time may do so. We hear many clients in this position and when they look back, they will tell us that the performance issues had been there for longer than they first thought and that performance has been declining over a period of time.
If performance issues, even minor ones, are not addressed as soon as they arise, you may find yourself with an employee who is not performing and who perhaps has disengaged.
If presenteeism is prevalent within your business, knowing how to stop it would be highly beneficial. The main advice we would give is to reinforce to employees that in cases where they are genuinely not well, it is best to stay off work until they are well enough to return. It is important to keep an eye on absences due to ill health, not least to make sure that days off are for genuine reasons – being off work is acceptable, subject to a reasonable limit!
Upon their return, a return-to-work discussion may be appropriate to better understand the reason for the absence and the procedures to be followed for future incidences.
As always, if we can be of any assistance please let us know.
