The cost of sickness presenteeism in organisations.

• Main Authors: Guo, Jacqueline Sisi., Tan, Hong Chiang., Tan, Hong Siang.
• Other Authors: Hesan Ahmed Quazi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::Management::Productivity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/21187
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Sickness Presenteeism (SP) has become a prevalent phenomenon among employers and employees in today‟s business world [Saarvala, 2006]. This is so as it hurts output, quality of work-life and employee health [Lowe, 2002]. SP arises when employees still reports to work despite of their ill health which should prompt rest and absence from work[Aronsson et al., 2000]; [Demerouti et al., 2009]. Unlike absenteeism, SP among employees is not always noticeable as one can tell when an employee is absent from work, but cannot easily tell whether the productivity of the employee who turns up for work is affected by his/her health conditions [Hemp, 2004]. In recent decades, studies have revealed high prevalence of SP among employees [Aronsson et al., 2000]; [Roe, 2003]; [Elstad and Vabo, 2008]; [Hansen and Andersen, 2008]. However, most studies are based on the western contexts that may not accurately reflect the prevalence of SP in Asia. As such, this study aims to provide an insight into the prevalence of SP closer to home, in Singapore. This study also seeks to assess the predicting factors of SP which are posited in the hypotheses - job demand, job status, and employees‟ awareness respectively. In the second section of this study, a detailed breakdown of the costs of SP resulting from 12 common health conditions in Singapore, using the presenteeism metric developed by Gotzel et al. (2004) is presented to highlight the prevalent of SP at work place.