Employee attendance problems? You’re not alone

One third (33%) of U.S. workers have “played hooky” from the office, calling in sick when they were well at least once this year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual absenteeism survey.

The majority of employers surveyed said they rarely question the reason for an employee’s absence, but 31% of employers admit to checking up on an employee who called in sick and 18% have fired someone for missing work without a legitimate excuse.

CareerBuilder.com surveyed more than 6,800 workers and 3,300 employers nationwide, revealing some interesting absenteeism statistics including the most frequent reasons for calling in sick:

• Almost one-in-ten workers (9%) admit to playing hooky because they wanted to miss a meeting, buy some time to work on a project that was due or to avoid the wrath of a boss or colleague.
• Nearly one-third (30%) called in sick because they just needed to relax and recharge.
• Others missed work to go to a doctor’s appointment (27%), catch up on sleep (22%), run personal errands (14%), catch up on housework (11%) or spend time with family and friends (11%).
• 34% of “sick” employees just didn’t feel like going to work that day.

"It’s in your best interest to be up-front with your employer and chances are you’ll get the time you need," said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.com. "More companies today are moving toward a Paid Time Off system, giving employees more flexibility in how they categorize time away from the office. Employers are also expanding the definition of the sick day with 65 percent stating that they allow their team members to use sick days for mental health days."

If you’ve had problems with attendance tracking in the past and are looking for a way to simplify the process, we have an upcoming webinar that may help you out.

In one, 30-minute “lunch and learn” presentation you’ll learn how unscheduled absenteeism affects your business, the benefits of electronic recordkeeping and how to move from a paperwork-filled mess to a greener, electronic time-tracking system.

This free webinar, sponsored by Gradience, was created specifically for software beginners interested in reducing attendance paperwork and moving to an electronic solution, saving time and helping the environment.

Sign up today for Software Basics: Track Attendance Electronically Like a Pro on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 1 p.m., ET.

View more upcoming webinars here.