A relatively new concept that is threatening businesses and costing employers money is presenteeism. According to Daniel Sitter, “Presenteeism is the complement of Absenteeism. It is defined as the measure of lost productivity cost due to employees actually showing up for work, but not being fully engaged and productive, mainly because of personal health and life issue distractions.”

Since the cost of wages does not change, “presenteeism is estimated to be up to 7 ½ times more costly to employers than absenteeism.” This article also points out several disturbing statistics:

These are some very alarming numbers! Not only are they scary for employers, but for employees too. While presenteeism is costing employers money, it is causing employees to have decreased productivity, which results in more stress.

While there is no simple solution to change this trend, there are some ways that employers can help assuage the damages:

While you do not want to encourage absenteeism, you do want to encourage employees to be productive. Allowing them the opportunity to take care of personal affairs at home, or not feel the pressure to come in to work while they are sick, will help you to maintain a high level of productive employees.