Attendance Management

(Created January 1987 and last edited September 2013)

The management of workplace attendance is an important aspect of supervision in the workplace.

The cost of absenteeism is greater than the direct payment of wages and benefits paid durance the absence. Organizations must also consider the indirect costs of staffing, scheduling, re-training, lost productivity, diminished moral, turnover, and opportunity cost. The indirect costs often exceed the direct cost of absenteeism.

The annual cost of absenteeism is $2,500, which includes both direct and indirect costs based on 9.3 days absent (Dabboussy & Uppal, 2012) out of 250 working days (Dabboussy & Uppal, 2012) and an average payroll of $47,771 ("Industrial aggregate excluding unclassified businesses", 2013).

Effective supervisory efforts to manage attendance will affect a relatively small percentage of employees, but will result in substantial savings, increased productivity and morale.

Definition of Absenteeism

Absenteeism is the failure of employees to report for work when they are scheduled to work. Employees who are away from work on recognized holidays, vacations, or approved leaves of absence would not be included.

Causes of Absenteeism

The causes of absenteeism are many and include:

serious accidents and illness
low morale
poor working conditions
boredom on the job
lack of job satisfaction
inadequate leadership and poor supervision
personal problems (financial, marital, substance abuse, childcare eldercare etc.)
poor physical fitness
inadequate nutrition
transportation problems
the availability of income protection plans
stress
excessive workload
employee discontent

Managed Dental Care - Preferred Dental Provider Network

Dental Cost

The paradox of rising dental costs:

the supply of dentist per capita has increased dramatically
the need for dental services has declined because of better preventive care
the dental claims per individual rises much faster than the general CPI

Using the economic laws of supply and demand, we would expect the cost of dental care to decrease since the supply of providers has increased and the need for service has decreases. The traditional cost control measures of plan limitations and cost shifting are not as effective as anticipated.

Preferred Dental Providers

A preferred provider network eliminates those providers that do not provide good value. Service providers are paid fees for the services performed and not paid per patient like capitation programs.

A preferred provider network of dentists can:

eliminate excess services
eliminate unnecessary services
negotiate a lower fee schedule
reward dentists based on treatment outcomes

Infrastructure

The network manager is responsible for:

Quality Control:

Regularly evaluate facilities of providers

equipment
sterilization techniques
emergency facilities
administration

Oral or written patient surveys

punctuality
office environment
staff attitudes
communication of treatment plan
pain management
perception of treatment outcome
communication of expenses

Cost Control:

negotiate lower fees
adjudicate predetermination of specialty services
analyze claims to identify unusual practice profiles
removing uncooperative practitioners

Funding Models

Dental Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) - Reimbursement

A defined benefit plan with a higher level of coverage if services are provided by a preferred provider. Discounts are negotiated and passed on to plan sponsors.

Dental Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) - Capitation

A defined benefit plan with preferred providers reimbursed fixed revenue per capita from the plan sponsor. Providers accept the financial risk. If fewer service are required than profit increases. Employees are limited in their choice of dentist.

Optimize Risk Sharing