JEDDAH — Low job satisfaction and lack of responsibility are equally considered as reasons for employees to not attend work, an "Absenteeism in the Middle East Workplace in the Middle East Workplace" poll conducted by Bayt.com, the region’s number one job site, has shown. The solution to this, according to 51 percent of poll respondents, is to reward regular attendance and punctuality.

Absenteeism is considered to be harmful to business by eight out of 10 poll takers (79.8 percent, of which 58.2 percent state it is "very harmful" with decreased overall productivity being seen as the most costly side effect of employee absence (26.8 percent). Possible loss of business or dissatisfied customers (22.3 percent) and problems with employee morale (21.3 percent) are considered to be the next most pertinent issues. When asked how often they take unplanned/unapproved days off work, 63.2 percent of poll takers said that they do so "very rarely"; however 11.9 percent claim to do so once a month.

Almost half of the respondents (47 percent) believe that the level of absenteeism at their company is low, with a further 47.2 percent stating that they manage to easily maintain a healthy work-life balance in their current role. Almost one in four (35.8 percent) say that although they do maintain a balance, it isn’t easy to do so.Female employees are seen to be absent more often than their male counterparts by 42.6 percent of respondents. Similarly, more than half (50.2 percent) of respondents believe that senior employees take more unplanned leaves than anyone else. The majority (58.2 percent) believe that management are treated preferentially when it comes to absenteeism; only 32 percent claim that everyone is treated equally.

"Employers state that there are significant knock-on effects to absenteeism, and yet our survey has shown that there are a considerable number of companies that do not follow through on consequences for employees consistently taking unplanned leaves.

This suggests that stronger measures should be considered, to ensure overall profitability and smoother operational functions," said Suhail Masri, VP of Sales, Bayt.com.Six out of 10 or 62.4 percent say that their companies track employee absenteeism through "a specialized program with strict policies". Despite this, a quarter of respondents (28.4 percent) say that their company tracks absenteeism, but "no serious measures are ever taken".

A "lack of responsibility" and "low job satisfaction" ranked equally with 22.7 percent each as the main reason for absenteeism — conversely to the latter however, seven out of 10 employees claim that their working environment is good to excellent. Other leading reasons were demotivation (12.1 percent), bad employee/manager relations (9.1 percent), home and family responsibilities (7.5 percent), and medical and health conditions (7.2 percent). Job stress and being overworked came in joint with 6 percent each. More than half of the poll’s respondents (51 percent) state that recognizing and rewarding regular and punctual attendance is the best way to lower rates of absenteeism. One-fifth (18.5 percent) claim that a strict absenteeism policy will work, while 9 percent believe that educating employees on the costs of absenteeism will act as a deterrent.

Data for the Bayt.com Absenteeism in the Middle East Workplace poll was collected online from May 13 – June 21 2012, with 9085 respondents covering more than 12 countries in the MENA region. — SG