Absenteeism

Absenteeism is habitual unplanned absence from work, tracked as the percentage of scheduled working days lost, calculated as days lost divided by days available, multiplied by 100.

What it is

See it move

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A warehouse team of 40 employees, each scheduled for 20 days, has 800 days available in a month. 24 days are lost to unplanned absence, giving an absenteeism rate of 24 ÷ 800 × 100 = 3%. If lost days rose to 40 the following month, the rate would climb to 5%, an early warning sign worth investigating.

The formula

LaTeX

AR = \frac{D_{lost}}{D_{avail}} \times 100

Variables

$A R$: Absenteeism rate (%)
$D_{l os t}$: Days lost to unplanned absence (days)
$D_{a v ai l}$: Days available (scheduled working days) (days)

Measures the share of scheduled working days lost to unplanned absence, used as an early-warning learning-and-growth measure.

Check yourself

PracticeCORE

A team of 25 employees is each scheduled to work 22 days in a month, and 22 days are lost across the team to unplanned absence that month. What is the absenteeism rate?

Select an answer to check your understanding.