Plan for people to miss work

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

Plan for the unexpected, because it will happen.

Advice for managers or owners: don’t plan or expect for all of your employees to be running full steam all of the time. In fact, plan for employees to have unexpected things come up in life.

Every month, between 1 out of 33 to 1 out of 40 employees quit. At that rate, about one in four employees will quit each year.

Of the employees who don’t quit, many will be out of the office longer than expected.

Every year, about 15 million employees file for the Family Medical Leave Act, or FMLA. That is almost 10% of the entire workforce. Considering that about 44% of employees don’t qualify for FMLA because they work for small employers, then we can assume that a lot more than 15 million people will have to be out of the office for a similar reason.

More than half of those out on FMLA are out because of their own health condition.

When an employee is out for a few weeks due to medical leave, this can put quite a strain on a business.

The vast majority of employers compensate by placing the workload on other employees, while only about 6% call for temporary help.

The loss in productivity, the loss of missed opportunities, and the loss due to mistakes can cost much more than finding someone to fill in. Employers should consider whether they can call for temporary help to help fill the gap until the employee returns.

And employers should certainly plan for some employees to miss work throughout the year, whether through their annual budgeting process or when planning on how many people it takes to get the job done.