RISMEDIA, Feb. 1, 2008-New survey findings suggest that an estimated 1.5 million employees may call in sick to work the day after the Super Bowl. The “Super Bowl Fever Sidelines Employees on Monday Morning” survey of 1,430 adults employed full-time was sponsored by The Workforce InstituteTM at Kronos® Incorporated and conducted online via Harris Interactive.
The survey shows that another three percent of respondents, or an estimated 4.4 million employees, may arrive late to work the Monday after the Super Bowl. This number is in-line with the three percent of respondents who admit to, in the past, having arrived late to work the Monday after the Super Bowl. Interestingly enough, three percent also say that they have previously called in sick to work the Monday after the Super Bowl, indicating that the number of employees who actually do call in sick may be significantly higher than the number who say they might.
Super Bowl-related absences could be particularly striking for organizations with a high population of Gen X and Gen Y employees, as the majority of the employed adults who say they may call in sick the day after the Super Bowl are males and females between the ages of 18-34 years (4% and 3%, respectively).
Unscheduled absences, including those that organizations will experience after the Super Bowl, cost U.S. employers billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, impact production and customer service, and create employee satisfaction problems. Until recently, few organizations were conscience of this hidden cost or were simply not focused on controlling it.
“Today, best practice organizations are using automated solutions to manage and apply attendance policies fairly and consistently throughout their organizations,” said Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated. “Managers benefit from the timely information, which enables them to quickly adjust to unscheduled absences without impacting production or employee satisfaction. Employees are empowered with self-service tools, which provide access to vacation and personal leave time balance information, encouraging them to plan appropriately for time away from work. This supports a healthy work/life balance and reduces unscheduled absences.”
This Super Bowl survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Kronos Incorporated between January 24 and 28, 2008 among 3,091 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, of whom 1,430 were employed full-time. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.
For more information, visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
