Evaluate how Nestle might attempt to increase employee engagement in order to minimize employee absence.
Please use guide and include at least 10 citations.
Paragraph 1 – (2 citations, 150 words)
Define employee absenteeism and its negative impact on businesses – use a citation to support
– use Acas, 2010. See page 68 onwards in the guide. Negative impacts include – reduced employee
productivity, business productivity and declining profits, affects employee morale when staff are absent.
Introduce the connection between employee engagement and its ability to reduce employee
absenteeism – use a citation – Investors in People 2014 citation from the study guide.
Discuss at least 2 benefits to a business of being able to reduce employee absenteeism through
employee engagement strategies eg. increase employee productivity and business productivity in the
marketplace resulting in higher profits, company saves on costs due to high productivity, react quickly
to market changes – new competitors.
Discuss the extent of the employee absenteeism problem in your company eg. possibly use a HR
statistic to show the extent of absenteeism in a department or throughout the company (Thesis
Statement)
Make a judgement on whether your company has been able to use employee engagement strategies
to reduce employee absenteeism. Use evidence to support your answer.
Suggest some ways of how employee engagement strategies maybe used to reduce employee
absenteeism in your business:
o Giving employees voice – see page 80 (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009)
o Creating a positive psychological contract
o Job design techniques eg. using job enlargement , job rotation to design rewarding work. (CIPD,
2016) (Soanne et al, 2013)
o Recognising employees for their effort and achievements.
o Empowering employees to make decisions, giving them the authority to do so.
o Employee rewards linked to attendance & punctuality eg. monetary and non-monetary rewards
Discuss one benefit these engagement strategies may have on employee absenteeism in your
business eg. increase presenteeism, improved employee morale leading to increase individual and
business productivity.
Outline the purpose of the report which is to assess how employee engagement can be used to
reduce the employee absenteeism in your business.
Paragraph 2 – (2 citations, 150 words, discussion of employee voice strategies)
Introduce that employee voice can be used to increase employee engagement in reducing
absenteeism in your business – citation (CIPD, 2017 & Farndale et al. (2011) – page 14). Also
Soanne et al (2013), on page 70.
Explain how it works: Employees are given opportunities to contribute towards company policies and
organisational decision making which make staff feel valued and part of the organisation.
Provide an example of how it works in your organisation – See page 80. Management may use two
way communications, special workforce meetings, employee working groups and suggestion schemes
in your organisation; a company intranet maybe used to capture employee feedback
Outline the possible impact of the example in reducing employee absenteeism in your business.
Discuss one possible problem of using employee voice in your organisation. Employees may feel
their opinions are not valued or actioned by management, lack of leadership vision and training to use
employee voice.
Discuss one possible solution to the problem in using voice to reduce absenteeism. See page
81. Relate to Burris’s (2012) work stating that employee voice requires leadership support to implement
which can contribute to greater business productivity through greater presenteeism.
Paragraph 3 – 160 words, 2 citations (Discussion of employee rewards and recognition, See Chapter 3)
Introduce that employee rewards and recognition can be used to engage staff in reducing
employee absenteeism – use citation Armstrong and Taylor (2017), Chapter 3. Employee rewards have
the potential to engage and to motivate staff meaningfully which leads to reduce employee
absenteeism. Reinforce that the motivational theories such as Maslow’s , Herzberg’s theory suggest
that staff are engaged by suitable monetary and non-monetary rewards.
Explain how it works – citation.
o An employee satisfactory survey maybe used to determine employees’ preferred rewards
o Preferred rewards are then linked to days present and/or days absent
o Formally assessed at performance appraisals (attendance component)
o Process is communicated to all staff
o Staff is rewarded for meeting absenteeism or presenteeism standards.
Using one of the above principles, provide an example of rewards and recognition may work in
your organisation to reduce absenteeism. Eg. Your business could use both financial and non-
financial rewards to engage operational and managerial staff – using a total rewards approach. Also,
the HR department maybe using employee of the month programmes to recognise staff
accomplishment in sales. Employees may get a reward, wall picture and publicity on the company’s
facebook page.
Examples of non-financial rewards your business maybe using: performance appraisals, opportunities
for growth and development, flexible working arrangements.
Examples of financial rewards your business maybe using: profit sharing, bonus, healthcare, pension
etc.
Outline the likely impact of the example to employee engagement and absenteeism: the example
values and motivates staff for their contribution which results in greater engagement and eagerness to
be present at work and be less absent.
Discuss one possible problem of using employee rewards and recognition in your organisation
to boost presenteeism eg. HR staff may not know how to design reward systems or even appraisal
systems to link rewards to staff being present at work.
Discuss one possible solution to the problem.eg. Training of HR staff and line managers on the
exercise might be required.
Paragraph 4 – 160 words, 2 citations (Discussion of employee empowerment strategies to reduce
absenteeism)
Introduce that your company uses empowerment strategies to reduce employee absenteeism –
use a citation to support.
Explain the principles of empowerment in your company. Some principles include:
o Jobs are enlarged in scope to include additional duties
o Jobs are enriched so employees experience task variety, autonomy, need fulfilment, feedback
o Employees are given the authority to execute certain tasks with accountability
o Training is provided to employees to acquire the needed skills for the job.
o Management provides staff with the information to make the important decisions
Illustrate 2-3 examples of empowerment is used in your company. For example:
o Bank tellers are empowered not to only deal with cash transactions but also sell loans
(enlargement)
o Sales agents are given the authority to give specific customer discounts to repeat customers
o Admin staff are trained on office procedures and administration to increase productivity
Discuss the impact of these examples on employee performance – increase staff satisfaction as
they are provided with opportunities of autonomy, empowerment and accountability which leads to job
satisfaction, engagement and hence lower absenteeism. Employees find the more personally fulfilling
to their needs as a result of greater empowerment.
Discuss the impact of these examples on business performance. With high engaged staff through
greater empowerment, staff are more present, less absent with lower sickness rates. As a result of the
greater engagement, business productivity increases etc.
Discuss one limitation of employee empowerment strategies in your company. Eg Some senior
managers might be resistant to devolve power to lower level staff.
Recommend a solution to this limitation eg. training and change management interventions to show
all parties the benefits of empowerment.
Paragraph 5 (100 words, Wrap up the discussion)
Summarise the effects of employee engagement strategies in your organization to reduce
employee absenteeism.
Discuss how the linkage between employee engagement, reduced absenteeism, improved employee
productivity and morale leads to greater business productivity to your business.
Recommend that line managers should realise absenteeism can cost the business (dollars and
cents). As such workers should be consulted- determine their reasons for absenteeism (personal, job,
psychological) – create the engagement strategies to address the gap.
Make some suggestions to improve the absenteeism problem: establishing a positive
psychological contract, creating a data driven approach (using IT) to collect data on absenteeism eg.
by department, which can inform improvements.
Resources:
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