Effective leadership is important in an organization by enabling an organization to achieve its goals and objectives as well as help address some of the management problems that may negatively affect an organization (Manivannan, 2018). This includes having limited resources, addressing external factors that may negatively impact an organization as well as internal challenges. One of these challenges is employee absenteeism that may affect an organization’s productivity. It is important for leaders to implement effective communication strategies to enhance trust and their relationship with the employees of their organization (Manivannan, 2018).
This will enable the leaders to identify any concerns faced by the employees where effective interventions can be implemented. Most of the organizational problems are as a result of poor communication where leaders do not understand some of the problems faced by their employees. Improved communication will also encourage employees in proposing effective changes to address some of the challenges affecting an organization (Manivannan, 2018). Case study: A Lottery for Employee AttendanceEmployee absenteeism has negative effects on an organization since this means that some of the duties and responsibilities performed by the employees will not be done affecting daily targets and eventually the organizational goals (Buchbinder, 2013). Employees are important in an organization as they help an organization in achieving its vision by performing different functions. An organization that invests in its employees has been indicated to have a high performance (Manivannan, 2018).
Although an organization may have a vision and goals, the achievement of these aspects is the responsibility of its employees since the management cannot perform all the required functions. This might be attributed to the different departments in an organization such as a healthcare organization where the organization requires different healthcare professionals to perform different duties to enable the organization to achieve its goals (Buchbinder, 2013). Centerville Public Health Clinic had already experienced the negative effects associated with employee absenteeism that led to the organization to develop an innovative way to encourage employees to report to work (Buchbinder, 2013). Employee absenteeism increased the costs associated with ensuring that business operations continue normally to over $5,000 loses per month. Most of these employees include African-American Certified Nursing Assistants who are absent on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays where the employees create time for their personal business instead of their responsibilities at the organization (Buchbinder, 2013). The employees wanted the days off regardless of them losing the day’s pay.
The human resource director developed a solution to motivate the employees to come to work on these days by holding a lottery each Friday which would be based on the attendance record where employees would benefit through different prizes as well as a vacation at the end of six months (Buchbinder, 2013). This plan worked effectively for the first four months where the absenteeism dropped from 25% to 5%. However, the management of Centerville Public Health Clinic has a new problem where people are coming to work sick an aspect that may affect patient safety as this would expose patients to different infections in the effort of winning the lottery (Buchbinder, 2013). The New ProblemBased on the case, employees are more focused on the contingency plan due to the reward involved rather than focusing on the main objective why they come to work. The employees have also neglected their own health in the aim of attaining the presented reward (Thun, Halsteinli, & Løvseth, 2018).
This may negatively impact the healthcare providers in diverse aspects such as having serious health issues. This increases the risk to patients where they may receive poor healthcare services since the providers are also not feeling well. The main goals and objectives of healthcare facilities are to improve the health of patients in different aspects (Thun, Halsteinli, & Løvseth, 2018). However, employees coming to work sick where they may expose patients to infections may affect the achievement of this goal in Centerville Public Health Clinic. Sickness presenteeism among healthcare providers also increases the probability of medical errors that will ultimately affect patient outcomes (Thun, Halsteinli, & Løvseth, 2018). SolutionsOne of the ways of addressing this problem may involve analyzing the hiring process since the employees willingly give themselves days off regardless of the underlying consequences associated with this practice (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018). This clearly indicates that the employees are completely unaware of the reason for their employment since they also come to work when sick in an effort to win the lottery. An effective screening process can be done during the hiring process where employees sign a contract which includes proper attendance to work (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018).
This will prevent such occurrences in the workplace as employees can face consequences for their actions. Through discussions with their supervisors, the management also determined that absenteeism was now a part of the accepted norm. The employees also wanted the days off regardless of losing day’s pay. This shows how serious the employees are in having the days offs to take care of their personal business (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018). This is an indication of employee ignorance of the laws and leadership in an organization. This can be addressed through proper action to the responsible employees as the employees have completely disregarded the law to run their personal businesses (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018). This may involve dismissal from work where the employees are replaced with thoroughly screened individuals to prevent the trend from reoccurring again. One important area in addressing these problems involves changing employee attitudes towards their work that led to the first problem (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018).
This means addressing the underlying problems that led to employee absenteeism as well as the negative attitude where the employees look forward to the off days instead of focusing on performing their duties responsibly. This will prevent an organizational culture where taking a day off is the norm which is against the organization’s rules and regulations (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018). This problem can also be addressed through effective leadership where a leader engages the employees to develop an effective solution since the employees are not coming to work to perform their responsibilities rather to win the lottery. Although the strategy employed may address the issue of employee absenteeism, this may not lead to improved productivity as sick employees would not perform their roles sufficiently (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018). It is important for a leader to ensure effective communication where the employees are able to air their concerns on the reason for their absenteeism instead of developing solutions while neglecting the employees. This is because the solution may provide a temporary reprieve or lead to other problems as is the case (Lui, Andres, & Johnston, 2018).
Employee
Involvement in the Decision-Making ProcessSince employee absenteeism is a major problem faced by all organizations, it is important to involve employees in the decision-making process which will enable them to provide their proposals in addressing the problem (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014). Although employee absenteeism would affect the organization in diverse aspects, coming to work when sick will also have the same effects as this will affect patient outcomes where patients may acquire infections while at the facility (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014). Collaborative decision-making in the workplace will help in the development of an effective intervention to address employee absenteeism without leading to other problems. Employees can be able to supply the management with new ideas and interventions that the management might not have been able to develop (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014). This aspect also enhances trust between employers and their employees where employees are allowed to give their input towards certain issues affecting the organization. This also shows that the management values the employees (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014).
Leadership positions can be developed in different departments where the leaders can be able to address some of the concerns affecting patients. This will prevent some of these situations, as employees will feel represented (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014). Based on the case, majority of these employees are from the African-American population. This may indicate that some of the organizational aspects might have contributed to this problem. If the employees are given the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process, they may be able to air any of their concerns to the management where effective solutions are implemented (Biron, Cooper, & Burke, 2014).ReferencesBiron, C., Cooper, C. L., & Burke, R. J. (2014).
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