How much does absenteeism related to PSRs truly cost?

Absenteeism related to psychosocial risks costs businesses a lot of money, but many impacts are difficult to measure.

When a business leader seeks to reduce costs, they generally examine processes, procurement costs and operating expenses. However, absenteeism related to psychosocial risks (PSRs) is a significant source of loss that can go unnoticed.

Some of the impacts of absenteeism can be easily quantified, while others are much less visible. However, you need to look beyond the numbers and financial data to understand the full extent of the issue.

What are the direct costs of absenteeism?

Reviewing your direct costs is a good starting point when assessing the impacts of absenteeism on your business. Salary continuation, disability benefits, compensation for employment injury, certain premium increases and expenses related to replacing workers are generally easy to quantify.

However, these expenses represent only a portion of the total cost.

What are the hidden costs of absenteeism?

Presenteeism is a good example. An employee can report for work without being fully capable of performing their tasks. Confirming and quantifying this decreased productivity is particularly difficult in intellectual occupations, in particular.

When an employee is absent, it can also impact the entire team’s operations. In addition to costs documented in financial data, there are several indirect costs including:

• lost productivity on the part of the individual in difficulty and their team;
• an excessive workload where responsibilities are reassigned to colleagues;
• replacing the absent employee, which involves recruiting, onboarding and training;
• the time that managers spend reorganizing the workload, following up and supporting team members;
• a loss of expertise, particularly where the absent individual holds a key role.

Even when an employee can be replaced, productivity doesn’t immediately rebound to its previous level. The employee who takes over must start by familiarizing themself with their duties before they can be fully operational.

If you consider only the expenses directly related to absences, you may underestimate their true cost.

Why is the cost of uncertainty related to an absence so high?

Determining a specific return date following an absence for psychological health reasons is not always possible. This uncertainty can make work organization complicated for employers.

Do you have to redistribute responsibilities, hire a temporary employee or postpone certain projects? Employers often have to make decisions even when they don’t know how long an employee will be absent for.

Furthermore, they must be tactful when communicating with the absent individual. Depending on the context, staying in touch can be perceived as supportive, but also as pressure to return to work.

During this time, the company must maintain its operations. This represents one of the significant costs of absenteeism, but determining the exact cost is virtually impossible.

Why should you take action before the number of absences increases?

Absenteeism can be a symptom of difficulties related to the work environment. Before you can reduce absenteeism on a long-term basis, you must understand the causes.

This is where psychosocial risk prevention comes into play. In addition to respecting regulatory requirements, you could examine your work practices and identify factors that may negatively impact your employees’ mental health. The challenge involves not simply reacting and managing absences, but taking proactive measures to better prevent them.

How can you reduce costs related to PSRs?

If your company’s absenteeism rate becomes a concern, you could be tempted to concentrate on solutions. A training program for managers or an employee support program could be useful, but only where they address the issue in question.

Instead, a psychosocial risk assessment should be the first step of the process.

• Which PSRs are present in your business? What are the causes? 
• Which practices could you review? 

The tool developed jointly by Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton and SAnÉ Solution examines 146 potential causes behind psychosocial risk factors in particular.

This analysis helps you to pinpoint the most appropriate interventions, and ongoing monitoring makes it possible to measure their impacts and adjust actions as needed.

How can RCGT support you in this process?

The experts at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton can paint a picture of the psychosocial risks in your company and of your management practices, while assessing the costs associated with absenteeism.

Based on this assessment, they will help you identify priority actions and the indicators you need to measure results. The objective is not to roll out additional initiatives, but to focus efforts on causes that have the greatest impact.

Would you like to improve your understanding of how PSRs impact your business and implement tailored solutions? Contact us!