Absenteeism in the workplace
I decided to explore a dataset on absenteeism because I want to see what factors affect absenteeism from the workplace the most, and how it relates to the present-day situation the world is encountering with the COVID-19 epidemic. Absenteeism is an employee’s intentional or habitual absence from work as defined in a Forbes Magazine article. While employers expect workers to miss a certain number of workdays each year, excessive absences can lead to decreased productivity which can have a major effect on company finances, morale, and other factors.
How does absenteeism affect companies? Using data obtained from the UCI Machine Learning Repository, let's explore how it affected this particular company. I started my analysis with a bar graph looking at the distribution of age and absenteeism by hours.
The data reveals the age bracket with the highest rate of absences to be 28, and between the ages of 33 to 37. 33% of the total absenteeism hours for this company were from the 33 to 37 age group.
Now let’s explore the reasons for these absences.
This dataset shows that medical consultation is the leading factor for absences followed by dental appointments and physiotherapy appointments.
Next, let's see how the seasons and the day of the week affects absenteeism.
The data reveals the highest peak at age 37 and mid 20’s for both factors.
The graph above reveals that the age group with the highest number of employees with children is around 36 to 37. The age group with the highest pet owners is about 28. Does this mean that people around the age group of late 20’s, mid 30’s to 40’s may have a high rate of absenteeism because of family commitments? Social drinkers peaked at about age 38. There’s not a high rate of social smokers at any age.
March has the highest hours of absenteeism during the year, and January has the least amount.
Absenteeism and Covid-19
In today’s age, as we deal with the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the need for social distancing, the need for some employees to work from home has increased significantly. This leads me to reason/question if having employees work from home during this COVID-19 period, and going forward, will help alleviate or reduce the rate of absenteeism in the workplace.