The effect of lifestyle on employee absentee rates

• Main Author: Coppens, Jennifer Marie.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Absenteeism (Labor) > South Africa.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22954

A research report submitted to The Faculty of Management University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management === Research in America shows that the traditional lifestyles (poor diet, lack of exercise, chronic illness, poor stress management and substance abuse) play a large role in causing the major dreaded diseases like cancer, coronary heart disease and strokes, and impact negatively on absenteeism. Traditional lifestyles and absenteeism (absent without permission and sick leave) of 126 employees were measured in a manufacturing plant, and the results correlated by using the Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Co-efficient and co- efficient of determination. It was established that the traditional lifestyle behaviours do impact on absenteeism i.e. the more severe the lifestyle and the unhealthier lifestyle practised, the higher the individual absenteeism is likely to be. There was no correlation between age and absenteeism and job grade and absenteeism. Before applying the traditional absentee reducing interventions, an organisation should measure lifestyles of their employees and if unhealthy, lifestyle change interventions should be introduced before or concurrently with traditional absentee reducing interventions if days absent are mainly due to sick leave. === AC2017