Employee Absenteeism and Its Detrimental Effects on Customer Services
Employee absenteeism has detrimental effects on customer services in an organisation. de Reuver, Van de Voorde and Kilroy (2021) define the term employee absenteeism as, ‘a form of withdrawal behavior whereby employees avoid unfavorable work situations by not showing up for work’. Tarro et al. (2020) on the other hand define the term employee absenteeism as, ‘time that an employee is away from work due to illness or disability’. Thus, it can be inferred taking into account the definitions that employee absenteeism is the practice of employees taking leaves in order to meet their personal needs including recovering from illnesses and taking care of their respective families.
Mohammed and Rashid (2018) define the term customer satisfaction as, ‘the overall evaluation on the basis of customers’ total purchase and consumption experience of the firms providing goods/services over time’. Rita, Oliveira and Farisa (2019) define the term as, ‘the consequence of customer experiences during the buying process, and it plays a crucial role in affecting customers’ future behavior, such as online repurchase and loyalty’. Thus, customer satisfaction refers to the level of satisfaction which a consumer experiences upon buying a product and using it. A customer in general experiences a high level of customer satisfaction when a product is able to meet his expectations and needs.
The aim of the report is to study the impact of employee absenteeism on customer satisfaction in an organisation. The organisation which would provide substratum for the discussion is Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHT) which is a trust operating hospital in Crewe, Northwich and Winsford, all the three places being in the United Kingdom (Mcht.nhs.uk. 2022)
The problem which has come into the light upon studying the case study woven around Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHT) is the high level of employee absenteeism which the organisation is facing. Ali Shah et al.(2020) in respect of employee absenteeism describes it as a ‘habitual’ negative work behaviour closely related to poor employee performance. Employees spend hours meant for work in doing activities which do not add to their productivity like drinking coffee for hours. Van de Voorde and Kilroy (2021) supports the opinion of the previous author by pointing out that employees exhibiting absenteeism not only stay from work for hours but also for days. Employees exhibiting high level of absenteeism take leaves to avoid facing professional challenges like dealing with increased numbers of customers. This means that the organisation concerned cannot get sufficient numbers of employees on board required to serve customers satisfactorily (Bourini et al. 2019). Rita, Oliveira and Farisa (2019) point out that high quality of services which customers get and the positive experience they have taking the service results in high level of customer satisfaction. Almohaimmeed (2019) mentions in this respect that high level of customer satisfaction enables companies retain customers. Satisfied customers in general remain loyal and keep on reordering products. Poor customer service level and poor service experience on the other results in low level of customer satisfaction. Thus, it can be established that on the basis of the discussion that employee absenteeism leads to low customer satisfaction. The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHT) is experiencing high level of employee absenteeism which is increasing annually. The trust has faced financial losses of millions of pounds. The management of the body owing to the high level of employee absenteeism is not able to make sufficient numbers of employees to serve customers satisfactorily. The patients, customers in this case experience poor treatment at the hospitals run by the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust owing to shortage of staff members (Campbell 2022). The case study mentions that the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in order to meet the shortage of the staff and ensure service to the patients to the feasible extent is forced to employ temporary staff and third party staff. This means the trust in becoming increasingly dependent on third party manpower consultancies to ensure customer satisfaction on day to day basis. Thus, it can be established on the basis of the analysis of the findings that problem which the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is increasing employee absenteeism which is resulting in poor customer satisfaction.
Defining Employee Absenteeism and Customer Satisfaction
The scope of the problem includes high employee absenteeism and the factors which lead to high employee absenteeism. The factors which likely lead to high level of employee absenteeism like low level of employee wellbeing would be taken into account within the scope of the report (Johnson et al. 2018). The scope of the problem would not include concepts like promotion and product innovation, which are important for customer satisfaction (YuSheng and Ibrahim 2019).
The problem of high level of employee absenteeism which the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust or MCHT is a long term problem. The trust has been facing the issue for years and has already suffers losses amounting to millions of pounds. The problem if not curtailed strategically would have severe negative effects on the operations of the MCHT and may even endanger its future sustenance.
Several groups of stakeholders of the MCHT are being and would be affected by the problem of high level of employee absenteeism. They include both internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. The internal stakeholders include the management of the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the middle level managers of the body and the lower level employees. The external stakeholders suffering owing to the issue are patients(analogous to customers), the government bodies, suppliers and the society in general.
The stakeholders of the MCHT are being affected in terms of finance, operations and social aspects owing to the issue of increasing employee absenteeism which it is facing. For example, the management of the MCHT owing to the high level of absenteeism is able to make available sufficient numbers of employees in different positions to run the hospitals it runs. This means that the management is facing difficulties in terms of operations. The patients are not getting proper services owing to the insufficient staff members present to serve them. They are experiencing lower level of customer satisfaction and are less likely to revisit the hospitals run by the MCHT (Bourini et al. 2019). This means the management of the body would lose revenue which means that the issue of high level of employee absenteeism is having negative impacts on the financial strength of the body. The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust holds environmental sustainability and social values of strategic importance to its operations (Mcht.nhs.uk. 2022). This means that owing to the insufficient number of staff on board, the MCHT is not able to serve the ailing patients satisfactorily. This means that the body is not being able to contribute to the social welfare of the United Kingdom to the extent it should have. Thus, it can be established on the basis of the discussion that the issue is inhibiting the MCHT from carrying out its social responsibilities satisfactorily.
The following PESTEL analysis of the United Kingdom would aim to identify the factors likely responsible for the high level of employee absenteeism which the MCHT is experiencing:
The United Kingdom is the 8th most politically stable country in the world (Hubbard 2021). This factor is unlikely responsible for poor employee attendance at the MCHT. However, Brexit can however be held responsible for the issue of high employee absenteeism facing the MCHT. This is because owing to Brexit, importing of drugs into the United Kingdom from the EU has become more expensive (Chaplain 2018). This means that in order to cut costs, hospitals in the UK including the ones run by the MCHT are being forced to limit their purchases of drugs. The pressure of treating more patients with the limited supply of drugs could have created excess stress on the employees of the MCHT. High job stress is often responsible for high employee absenteeism (Brunner et al. 2019). Thus, Brexit could be held responsible for the high rate of employee absenteeism facing the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Analysis of the Problem Faced by Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The GDP of the United Kingdom has suffered a great downfall owing to the coronavirus pandemic (Ons.gov.uk. 2022). The economic breakdown in the United Kingdom has resulted in high level of unemployment and lack of investments (Tradingeconomics.com. 2022). However, this cannot be directly related to the issue of high level of employee absenteeism facing the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Figure 1. Graph showing GDP of the UK
(Source: Tradingeconomics.com. 2022)
The rising coronavirus pandemic is the social factor which is proven to be resulted in rise in the rate of employee absenteeism in the NHS. As high as 19000 staff of the NHS have been absent on December 19, 2021 alone owing to COVID 19 pandemic. The numbers of COVID 19 patients have been towering around the time (Mundasad 2021). This means that staff members have been forced to treat an immensely numbers of patients. This professional pressure must have made them feel fatigued and they must have taken leaves to avoid their professional stress. Thus, it can be pointed out that the pandemic is one of the social factors in the United Kingdom responsible for high level of employee absenteeism.
Technological factors, environmental factors and legal factors:
The technological factors, environmental factors and legal factors prevailing in the United Kingdom are unlikely to have contributed to the high employee absenteeism at the MCHT. The high level of internet penetration which the UK enjoys could have been used by the employees of the MCHT to work from home (Wang et al. 2021). This could be curtailed the high rate of employee absenteeism at the MCHT.
Part 4.2. Analysis of the cause and effect of the complex problem using fishbone diagram:
Part 5. Propose alternative solutions:
Several solutions could be put forward before the management of the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for consideration to reduce high level of employee absenteeism it is experiencing. They include outsourcing certain positions, training employees and strengthening the overall organisational culture of the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
An evaluation of the three mentioned solutions has brought into the light that training the employees and strengthening the organisational culture which the management of the MCHT should consider. They would enable solving the issue effectively in the long run.
Plan for implementing solution, monitoring and review process/system:
Development of a plan for implementing the chosen/selected solution:
The plan of strengthening the organisational culture at the MCHT is as follows:
- The management of the MCHT identifies the strategies to strengthen the organisational culture and communicate it to the employees.
- The employees are trained to follow the policies which would be implemented to strengthen the organisational culture.
- The organisational culture strengthening policies are implemented.
- The management monitors the outcome of strengthening the organisational culture.
Part 7.2. Identification and discussion of success criteria:
The success of strengthening the organisational culture at the MCHT could be measured on several criteria. They include decreasing employee absenteeism and increasing level of customer satisfaction. This is because owing to falling employee absenteeism, there would be more employees available to treat patients. They would consequently experience higher level of customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the management of MCHT should take measures to curtail the increasing rate of employee absenteeism. The management should strengthen the organisational culture at the MCHT. This enable the organisation serve more customers owing to the availability of more staff members on board. This would enable the body achieve higher level of customer satisfaction. The body should also train the employees from time to time.
References
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