Jan 30, 2024

A Look at Current Trends in Absenteeism & What’s Ahead in 2024

Get an inside look at TeamSense customer usage data revealing the latest trends in workplace absenteeism compared to industry analyst predictions for 2024.

James Stafford

TeamSense Findings Over The Last 12 Months

The “When”: Tuesdays are tricky, and the New Year starts sluggishly

If we were to stop 100 people on the street and ask them, “What day of the week do you think has the highest employee absence rate?” most of us would argue between Monday and Friday as the worst days for attendance. Of course people are more likely to take those days off to extend their weekend, right?

How many would answer Tuesday? In fact, across more than half a million absence days in 2023…wait for it…Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays had a higher absence rate than either Monday or Friday.

Source: TeamSense customer data on more than 500,000 absence days reported in 2023
Tuesdays in 2023 saw a higher absence rate than other days of the week

Absence rates by month in 2023 are also counterintuitive, at first look. Why would absence rates be significantly higher in January, February and March than for months later in the year?

Source: TeamSense customer data on more than 500,000 absence days reported in 2023
January, February, and March saw significantly higher absence rates than any month later in the year

First, many companies have attendance policies with an annual number of permitted absences, and that allotment resets at the beginning of the calendar year. On January 1st, employees feel wealthy with vacation days, and so they’re more likely to take them towards the beginning of the year.

Secondly, flu season peaks at that time of year. The following data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that TeamSense absence data reflects the peak of flu season (not to mention other seasonal illnesses like colds that peak in the Winter.)

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Peak period for flu hospitalizations: December-February

But what about December, which represents weeks 49-52 in the chart above? December had the highest rates of flu infection but showed the lowest absence rate by far in the TeamSense 2023 absence data (2.78%).

The “Why”: Illness is Still the Biggest Reason for Call-Offs, Then Vacation and Late Arrivals

We analyzed the half million absence days recorded in TeamSense to see the reasons why people called off from work. In general, there are two types of no call, no shows:

1. Quiet quitting – Dissatisfied employees may still take a paycheck for a while, even if they’re actively looking for a new job.
2. Call-off noncompliance – These are people with no intention of leaving the company but who find the call-off process too difficult, time-consuming, or annoying when they are facing illness.

Source: TeamSense customer data on more than 500,000 absence days reported in 2023
Reasons for absences across all TeamSense customers in 2023

But among the absence reasons that TeamSense counted in 2023, the five most common were these:

1. Illness - 34%
2. Other / Unspecified - 25%
3. Vacation - 14%
4. Late arrival - 12%
5. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) - 5%

TeamSense Absence Data Mirrors National Trends

Some of our customers have thousands of employees using TeamSense, but even the largest probably don’t generate enough data to accurately reflect regional or national root-cause reasons for absenteeism. When we pool the data from all of the companies we serve, we have enough normally distributed data to feel confident in the larger patterns we see.

Third-Party Predictions: Manufacturing’s Back!

But let’s look forward. January is when everyone makes predictions about what’s coming this year. Here are three notable January predictions, enriched with some of our perspectives and recommendations.

Goldman Sachs Research : US Manufacturing Is Having a Renaissance

Goldman Sachs Research identified over $1 trillion in announced investments in manufacturing, $500 billion of which are “mega projects.” Those investments include semiconductor plants (43%), electric vehicles and batteries (22%), and clean energy projects (17%).

Deloitte : Tight Manufacturing Labor Market Expected to Continue in 2024

Deloitte’s “2024 manufacturing industry outlook” discusses “persistent talent obstacles” showing that there aren’t enough skilled manufacturing employees.

The Manufacturer & The Wall Street Journal : Growing Appreciation for Supply Chain Resilience Along with New Pressures on Logistics Ops

In “Predictions for the manufacturing industry in 2024,” The Manufacturer predicted AI will add some supply chain predictability in 2024.

Let’s add this all up. There will probably be more demand for goods as the global economy recovers, putting added pressure on logistics and warehouse managers to be more nimble and optimize their operations.

Learn How You Can Bolster Your People Operations for 2024

If you want to take control of absenteeism in 2024, TeamSense would like to help you. We can help you build stronger digital connections with your deskless workforce and then show them that you care when the unexpected happens.