International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2014): 5.611 Volume 4 Issue 10, October 2015 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Employee Absenteesim in Indian Industries Dr. S. Rabiyathul Basariya Department of Commerce and Business Administration, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research. Selaiyur, Chennai – 600 073 Abstract: Absenteeism in Indian industries is not a new phenomenon. It is the manifestation of a decision by employees not to present themselves at their place of work, at a time when it is planned by the management that they should be in attendance. Many research reports reveal that there has been a phenomenal increase in absenteeism in some industrial sectors. The absenteeism becomes a problem to organizational management particularly when employees absent from their work environment without giving sufficient notice and by justifying their stand by furnishing fake reasons. The reasons for absenteeism are many. The factors contributing to absenteeism from work includes individual and environmental factors. These consists of sickness, accidents, occupational diseases, poor production planning (flow of work), bad working conditions and inadequate welfare conditions, lack of trained laborers, insecurity in employment, collective bargaining process, rigid control system, lack of supervisory support, lack of interest, lack of cohesive and cordial culture and so on. The individual reasons may vary from organization to organization depending upon the organizational climate, employee's attitude and influence of external organizational factors (market forces, social activities that influence the industrial culture prevailing in geographical zone etc.). High rate of absenteeism is neither desirable to employers nor good for the employees. The levels of absenteeism and reasons for its occurrence are dependent on many variables in an organizational environment. This research highlights the ways to reduce the absenteeism of the employees in the Indian Industry. Keywords: Employees, Absenteeism, Industry, Workloads, stress, turnover, costs, management systems, incentives, job satisfaction. 1. Introduction and Design of the Study 1.1 Meaning Absenteeism is the term generally used to refer to unscheduled employee absences from the workplace. Many causes of absenteeism are legitimate, for example personal illness or family issues, but absenteeism also can often be traced to other factors such as a poor work environment or workers who are not committed to their jobs. If such absences become excessive, they can have a seriously adverse impact on a business's operations and, ultimately, its profitability. The Labour Department in India defined the absenteeism rate as the total man-shifts lost because of absences as a percentage of the total number of man-shifts scheduled. So for calculation of the rate of the absenteeism we require the number of persons scheduled to work and the number actually present. 1.2 Absenteeism It refers to workers absence from their regular task when he is normally schedule to work. The according to Webster’s dictionary ―A bsenteeism is the practice or habit of being an absentee and an absentee is one who habitually stays away from work.‖ According to Labour Bureau of Shimla: Absenteeism is defined as the total man shifts lost because of absence as percentage of total number of man shifts scheduled to work. In other words, it signifies the absence of an employee from work when he is scheduled to be at work. Any employee may stay away from work if he has taken leave to which he is entitled or on ground of sickness or some accident or without any previous sanction of leave. Thus absence may be authorised or unauthorised, willful or caused by circumstances beyond one’s control. Maybe even worse than absenteeism, it is obvious that people such as malingerers and those unwilling to play their part in the workplace can also have a decidedly negative impact. Such team members need individual attention from frontline supervisors and management. Indeed, as prevention is better than cure, where such a problem occurs, it is always important to review recruitment procedures to identify how such individuals came to be employed in the first place. For any business owner or manager, to cure excessive absenteeism, it is essential to find and then eliminate the causes of discontent among team members. If they find their supervisor or job unpleasant - really unpleasant - they look for legitimate excuses to stay home and find them with things such as upset stomachs or splitting headaches. Any effective absentee control program has to locate the causes of discontent and modify those causes or eliminate them entirely. In other words, if we deal with the real reasons team members stay home it can become unnecessary for t hem to stay away. Any investigation into absenteeism needs to look at the real reasons for it. Sometimes team members call in sick when they really do not want to go to work. They would not call you up and say, ― I’m not coming in today because my supervisor abuses me.‖ Or, ― I’m not coming in today because my chair is uncomfortable.‖ Or, ― I’m not coming in today because the bathrooms are so filthy; it makes me sick to walk into them.‖ There are a few essential questions to consider at the outset if you want to make a measurable improvement to your absenteeism figures.  Why is your present absenteeism policy ineffective?  Where and when is excessive absenteeism occurring? In many cases, under- trained supervisors could be a contributing factor.  What are the real causes for absences? Paper ID: SUB158515 141