Assignment
Learning Outcome 1 Be able to plan a people practice business research project aimed at adding organisational value.
Employee wellbeing plays a crucial role in fostering a productive and engaged workforce (CIPD, 2024). Businesses that suffer from high absenteeism rates can experience business disruptions, increase in expenses, and lower morale among employees. In a very stressful environment of doing business, the absenteeism at Vertex Solutions, has risen tremendously due to reasons such as stress, work life balance, lack of wellbeing initiatives (Vertex Solutions Group, 2024). It is important to address this issue to enhance workforce efficiency and thereby establish better organizational performance.
Being a Human Resource (HR) professional, I mainly formulate and implement strategic people practice interventions that would result in increase in employee engagement, performance and retention. This report explores how wellbeing policies enhance efficiency and reduce absences at Vertex Solutions by providing effective recommendations to support employee wellbeing.
The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of wellbeing strategies on employee absenteeism and providing recommendations that can reduce absenteeism and performance at Vertex Solutions (Morris, 2020). In this study, an evidence-based approach is followed based on which data and research is used to arrive at HR decisions. The findings will ultimately allow the organization to make proper implementation of wellbeing policies that will increase employee satisfaction, reduce absenteeism and ensure business success.
Terms of Reference
Research Aim
This paper aims to analyse the relationship between wellbeing policies and absenteeism rates at Vertex Solutions and develop strategic recommendations for the implementation of effective wellbeing policies.
Research Scope
In this study, the correlation between absenteeism and wellbeing policies will be explored among the workforce of Vertex Solutions. It will evaluate the best practices from similar organizations and fill gaps in the existing policies. For the research, we will collect and analyse from employees and from HR records, in order to have an overall picture of the interval when absenteeism creates or disrupts the employees’ daily work patterns.
Resources and Timeframes
However, it will be necessary to have the access to HR reports, employee survey responses and industry benchmarking data and academic literature on wellbeing policies. It will take four weeks before collecting data, two weeks for analysis and compilation of report. The appendix will include a GANTT chart that details important milestones and deadlines to be met within the study’s timeframe.
Literature Review
Theoretical Framework of Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model
According to the Job Demands-resources (JD-R) model, the JD-R model can explain the relationship between work place wellbeing policies and absenteeism (Tummers and Bakker, 2021). The model suggests that burnout and absenteeism can be generated by excessive workload, high pressure, and emotional stress can be overcome if job resources including support systems, wellbeing programs, work life balance initiatives) are present. On the contrary if job demands, excessive workload, high pressure, emotional stress are greater than jobs resources, the difference will be in the showing up factor which means absenteeism (Bakker and de Vries, 2021). Policies related to wellbeing are researched to act as job resources to reduce employee stress and absenteeism through making the work environment supportive (Akerstrom et al., 2021). While the JD-R model has a promising potential, a limitation is it is quite broad and could lead it to missing out the nuanced nature of the industry and differences among employees.
The Impact of Wellbeing Policies on Absenteeism
Continually, research emphasizes that workplace wellbeing initiative reduces absenteeism. Wu et al. (2021) in a study noted that organizations with integrated wellbeing strategy including mental health support, flexible work arrangements and stress management programs had low absenteeism rates and increased productivity. Chang (2024) pointed out that employees who think that their employer is interested in their wellbeing have higher job satisfaction and commitment which results in smaller number of sick leaves.
However, while wellbeing policies can help its employees to be more present. For example, according to Bogale and Debela (2024), without supporting organisational culture and leadership, even planned wellbeing programmes may be ineffective. Perceived stigma or fear of using wellbeing programs can make employees hesitant of utilizing it.
Limitations of Wellbeing Policies in Addressing Absenteeism
Although wellbeing policies can work, they are not a magic bullet against absenteeism. Studies by Sanchez-Gomez et al. (2021) indicate that absenteeism is affected by external factors, such as social and economic conditions, the condition of health, and job insecurity. Arevin et al. (2024) also showed that wellbeing programs improve employee engagement in the short-term, but their sustained implementation solely depends on continuous reinforcement and dovetailing with business objectives.
A second major drawback with implementing wellbeing initiatives, however, is the cost of doing so and keeping them up (Woliba, 2020). In small to mid-sized companies, like Vertex Solutions, these can be expensive to sustain hence the need to prioritise cost efficient to target therefore economical interventions for example mental health training awareness, adaptable work arrangements and Employee Assistance Programs (Le et al., 2021).
Best Practices and Strategic Considerations
In order to minimize the absenteeism leveraging on wellbeing, organizations should take such initiatives that are holistic and integrated. According to Lu et al. (2022), wellbeing should be embedded in an organisation’s culture rather than taking a separate initiative. Leadership training, creation of a positive work environment, and encouraging open communication are strategies that will potentially improve the effectiveness of wellbeing interventions (Mabona, Van Rooyen and Ten Ham-Baloyi, 2022).
Moreover, results from data driven approaches to wellbeing management are better than that. Organisations, for instance, suitably targeting their intervention based on HR analytics such as tracking trends in absenteeism and measuring impact of wellbeing policies, are able to use HR analytics for designing an effective intervention (Ravesangar and Narayanan, 2024). Nevertheless, a potential difficulty lies in ensuring that data collection is done with regards to employee privacy and ethical concerns.
Conclusion
The literature review reveals that wellbeing policies are an important way of tackling absenteeism and these must be adopted strategically, with support and using data. The JD-R model offers a helpful theoretical structure for elucidating how job resources can mitigate absenteeism; however, it is apparent that a number of factors influence absenteeism rates. Successful implementation necessitates leadership commitment, an inclusive organizational culture, and evaluation so as to sustain it in the long term. The research methodology is explained in the next section of this report to explore these findings with reference to Vertex Solutions.
Research Questions
- What are the effectiveness of Vertex Solution’s existing wellbeing policies and what strategic improvements can Vertex Solutions make to further improve their impact in reducing absenteeism?
The question of this research consolidates these key elements of the study, including the evaluation of the effectiveness of current policies as well as the potential for them to improve. The research integrates analysis of the current situation as well as of the potential future recommendations in order to offer a comprehensive, actionable framework for absenteeism reduction based on selected wellbeing initiatives.
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