The Relationship between Employee Absenteeism and Occupational Psychosocial Hazards in Construction Work Site

The Relationship between Employee Absenteeism and Occupational Psychosocial Hazards in Construction Work Site

Mohd Saidin Misnan*, Mohamad Zahierruden Ismail, Nurfadilah Darmansah, Zuhaili Mohamad Ramly, Fara Diva Mustapa, Syamsul Hendra Mahmud

Department of Quantity Surveying, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.81000012

Received: 12 September 2024; Revised 26 September 2024; Accepted: 30 September 2024; Published: 27 October 2024

ABSTRACT

As the introduction of human resources especially construction workers is very important in the construction sector especially when the construction industry in Malaysia has grown rapidly in recent years and is largely dependent on human labor to work. Although human labor is important to the construction industry, human labor is also considered the most complex management resource. One of the challenges faced on construction sites is employee absenteeism as the construction sector is experiencing the negative effects of absenteeism. Thus, the objective of the study is to identify the factors of employee absence at the construction site, the impact of employee absence at the construction site on the organization and determine the strategies used in managing employee absence at the construction site. The research methodology is through a qualitative method with a case study where a total of five construction projects respondents have been selected from Grade 7 (G7) main contractors or subcontractor firms and this research is focused on construction sites in the Johor area. A qualitative research approach with a semi-structured interview instrument was conducted with the respondents to ensure their perspectives were analyzed. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis where coding and frequency distribution methods were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Respondents focused on employers and employees working under the construction project site. Employers refer to management level personnel such as project managers or those responsible for managing the presence of workers at the construction site while workers refer to skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers working at the construction site. The findings of the study show that work fatigue which is classified as occupational psychosocial hazards is the most significant factor that causes workers not to attend the construction site and has caused a loss of productivity at the construction site that needs to be solved by providing welfare measures to the workers.

Keywords: Employees, absenteeism, construction site, occupational psychosocial hazards, safety and health

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, increase in the complexity of construction projects has tremendously increased the demand of construction workers for working in order to ensure the project completion. According to Rista et al., (2020), labour workforce especially construction workers are very significant in construction industry, 40 million of workforces are expected to be employed in construction sector and it will comprise of 55% of unskilled workers, 27% of skilled worker and the remaining are the technical staffs. However, although the labour workforce is highly significant in construction industry, it is considered the most challenging resource to manage compared to other resources.

The worker’s absence considerably affects the performance of the labor-intensive construction projects. Identifying the worker’s absence pattern assists construction project managers in preparing the proper project organization, reducing the absence rate, and improving the project performance (Alvanchi and Hashemi, 2021). Despite there have been several researches studied on absenteeism in an attempt to address this issue, some factors are still unknown which restrains the comprehensive understanding of employee absenteeism. This absenteeism issue has contributed to the detrimental impact on construction projects which were then brought the negative impacts directly to the organization (Randhawa, 2017; Groenewold et al., 2020). As stated by Rista, et al., (2020), even after different strategies have been utilized in an attempt to reduce absenteeism and employer incur substantial cost to run the program, absenteeism in the workplace still remains widespread. Therefore, there is a need to study employee absenteeism in construction site for a better understanding to mitigate this phenomenon.

Previous studies already provide comprehensive reviews on the empirical evidence of the risk effects of psychosocial work characteristics on mental illness, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes (Taini et al., 2021). From an occupational, safety and health (OSH) perspective, it is important to identify further psychosocial work characteristics that are risk factors for major health-related outcomes and are therefore imperative to consider in a comprehensive risk assessment. Musculoskeletal disorders, accidents, and absenteeism are relevant and available key figures for companies to estimate the health and safety of their employees (Yacine et al., 2021).

This article discusses the factors of worker absenteeism on construction sites, the impact of worker absenteeism on construction sites on the organization and determines the strategies used in managing worker absenteeism on construction sites.

LITARATURE REVIEW

Absenteeism in the workplace refers to an ongoing pattern of missing or skipping out on work without reason, impacting the availability and productivity of your workforce. Absenteeism is a pattern of frequent absence from the work or an obligation (Pravin & Preeti, 2018). According to Rista, et al., (2020), absenteeism refer to the failure of employee to report himself or herself for work when he or she has obligation to do so as stated in contract. On the other hand, absenteeism in construction can be defined as trades people missing the work for a period of time which are equal to or greater than two consecutive hours.

The psychosocial stress & strain were due to long working hours, lower wages, job uncertainty, poor communication among workers with supervisors. Construction industry plays a vital role in development of infrastructure of a country. About 50% of the subjects of unorganised sector belonged to construction industry in our country. The workers were victim of different health impairment like occupational health hazards, psychosocial stress & strain etc ((Alsulami et al, 2021). The psychosocial stress & strain were due to long working hours, lower wages, job uncertainty, poor communication among workers with supervisors. Exploitation by labour contractor, gender discrimination, sexual harassment was observed. About 94.6% of the workers were not aware of the different social security schemes. This occupationally exposed group of workers were victims of different psychosocial stresses & strains and other health impairments (Bardhan, and Byrd, 2023).

Psychosocial hazards or factors are anything in the design or management of work that increases the risk of work-related stress. A stress response is the physical, mental and emotional reactions that occur when a worker perceives the demands of their work exceed their ability or resources to cope. At the organizational level, the impact of psychosocial hazards can be seen in high staff turnover, increased absenteeism, reduced work performance (presenteeism), customer complaints, decreased employee satisfaction and morale, and changes in worker behavior, and including lack of engagement at work (Williams et al., 2019).

In addition, absenteeism is an indicator to assess the well-being of employees and a predictor for health consequences (Maani, 2020). Although the presence of job demands has been linked to increased employee absenteeism the causes of absenteeism are complex and can be multidimensional. However, empirical evidence shows that psychosocial characteristics can play an important role for higher rates of absenteeism (Ranasinghe et al., 2023).

Psychological hazards are aspects of the work environment and the way that work is organised that are associated with mental disorders and/or physical injury or illness. When psychosocial hazards are not effectively managed, they can negatively impact on organisational measures including productivity, absenteeism and turnover (Yacine et al., 2021).

Absenteeism in Malaysia Labour Law

Labour law in Malaysia enacted in Employment Act 1955 is the main legislation used to govern the employment practice in Malaysia. The aim of Employment Act 1955 is to establish the rights for both employers and employees and to provide the protection for employees by giving minimum benefits to employees through implementation of this act. Employment Act 1955 specifies minimum terms and conditions such as working hours, notice periods, rest day, payment of wages, deduction, etc.  The act also gives detail of benefits that are entitled by employees such as annual leave, medical leave, sick leave, public holiday and overtime rates (Employment Act 1955, 2012). The clauses under Employment Act 1955 that related to absenteeism include Part II, Section 15(2), Part XII, Section 59, Part XII, Section 60D, Part XII, Section 60E and Part XII, Section 60F.

The Employment Act 1955 is the main legislation governing the employer-employee relationship in Malaysia. Updates to the Employment Act 1955 have been long overdue as there have been many concerns and gaps in relation to the protection afforded to employees. On 30 March 2021, the Employment (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed by the Dewan Rakyat where several key amendments were tabled. The Employment (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed with the objective to increase and improve the protection and welfare of workers in the country in line with international labour standards as outlined by the International Labour Organisation. Given that the First Schedule of the Employment Act 1955 prescribes the application of the Act to certain categories of employees, there are uncertainties on whether the amendments would alter such categories once coming into force. As such, Malaysian employers and employees have been eagerly waiting for revisions to the First Schedule to be gazetted in relation to the categories of employees that fall within the purview of the amendments (Malaysia, 2023).

Measurement of Absenteeism

According to Miraglia and Johns (2021), the internationally norm for absence rate is 3%, therefore absenteeism rate above 3% is considered unacceptable and the rate beyond 5% is considered serious.  According to Neuber et al., (2022), measurement of absenteeism can help in determining the absenteeism pattern and trend in an organization as it can provide the overall organizational absence rate or able to provide the loss of percentage of working time within an organization due to absence. As mentioned by Alsulami et al., (2021) since there is no standard formula for computing absenteeism rates, therefore the method that is recommended by U.S Department of Labor is adopted. This method is also suggested by the research of Randhawa (2017); Pujol-Cols^, et al., (2021). The general formula used for computing the absenteeism rate is given as follows:

Types of Absenteeism

According to Zhang et al., (2019); Maani (2020); Alsulami et al., (2021); Pujol-Cols^, et al., (2021) there are four types of absenteeism which are:

1. Authorized absenteeism
2. Unauthorized absenteeism
3. Willful absenteeism
4. Caused by circumstances beyond one’s control

Factors of Employee Absenteeism in Construction Site

The factor of worker absenteeism at the construction site is actually due to several factors, including demographic factors, individual factors, and organizational factors.

Demographics Factor

Employee absence behaviour varies with socio-demographic characteristics. Therefore, demographics factor is needed to discuss in this section.

1. Gender: Women are absent more often when compared to males due to their traditional responsibilities which are taking care of household (Stiles et al., 2021).
2. Age: Older workers are absent more often and have higher absence rates when compared to younger workers due to sickness usually attributed to old age (Kazar et al., 2022). However, some statements argue that older workers exhibit lower absence rate when compared to younger workers as older workers often show higher level of commitment to organization (Randhawa, 2017; Turner & Lingard., 2020).
3. Education: The higher the education level, the lower the absence rate of workers. It was explained that for those who are highly educated, their job status is higher and therefore are less likely to work in hazardous condition. However, Wang et al., (2018) indicates that highly educated workers are more likely to experience job dissatisfaction which then contributes to high rate absence (Hoefsmita and Houkes, 2022).
4. Tenure: Tenure refers to the length of services that the worker has been working with an organization. Employees with shorter tenure are highly mobile especially those who always looking out for better opportunities for work Neuber et al., (2022). On the other hand, employees with longer tenure lead to low rate of absenteeism due to those employees exhibit higher commitment to work in the organization and have higher requirement for job stability (Groenewold et al., (2020).

Individual Factor

Employee absenteeism is closely related to individual factor. Therefore, the individual factors will be discussed in this category.

1. Illness and disease: Illness can be divided into two which is minor and major illness. Employee with poor health is more likely to suffer illness and disease which can lead to higher absence rate (Pravin & Preeti, 2018; Groenewold et al., 2020).
2. Personal attitude: Personal attitude in an organization is usually related to work ethics. Employees with strong work ethic will take responsibility towards their job and this kind of workers usually avoid themselves from remaining absent (Randhawa, 2017; Alsulami et al., 2021). Besides, Groenewold et al., (2020) described that negative job attitude helps in construct a bad work behaviour.
3. Substance abuse: Substance abuse is the excessive use of substances such as drug, alcohol or tobacco. Smoking, drug or alcohol consumption can negatively influence health and then lead to serious health problem over time (Patience et al., 2018).
4. Family responsibilities: Family responsibilities normally stem from caring responsibilities or sometimes family conflict happens which can cause those who are married unable to work on specific schedule (Pravin & Preeti, 2018).
5. Transportation problem: Transportation becoming a factor of absenteeism as some workers face transport or travel difficulties which affect their ability to come to work Groenewold et al. (2020). Besides, there are also other factors associated with transportation problem that indirectly unables workers to get to work such as bad weather for driving, distance to work and traffic congestion.

Organizational Factor

Apart from individual factor, employee absenteeism is also closely related to organization factor. As mentioned by Neuber et al., (2022), working condition has influence on the absenteeism rate.  Hence, all factors that are associated with organization are discussed in this category.

1. Work stress: Stress occurs when workers feel the demand of work is difficult to achieve or exceed their ability to perform (Salama et al., 2022). According to Alsulami et al., (2021) and Liew et al., (2020) it was found that almost 76% construction workers have high stress level.
2. Work fatigue: Work fatigue is a result from long working hours, shortage of staff, heavy work load and insufficient rest period. All of these reason can have negative impact on workers as the physical and mental exhaustion can suffer workers from absenteeism (Jung et al., 2021).
3. Job satisfaction: According to Bardhan and Byrd (2023), employees who are dissatisfied with their job will more likely to absent more often and then lead to high rate of absenteeism.
4. Poor working condition: Poor working condition in construction site generally refer to unhealthy and unsafe working condition. Unhealthy and unsafe working condition can cause major threat to life of employees (Wan Faida and Mohd Saidin, 2018; Yusof and Misnan, 2019a; Williams et al., 2019; Mohd Saidin et al., 2024).
5. Low wages: Employees with low salary are absent more often than employees with high salary. This is because workers with low wages usually hold multiple jobs to earn extra money (Jung et al., 2021).
6. Work related injury: Construction work is the most dangerous job and the work is generally completed by construction workers (Yusof and Misnan, 2019b). All these work related injuries either severe or non-severe can cause workers unable to work which then result in absenteeism (Wan Faida and Mohd Saidin, 2018; Williams et al., 2019).

Effects of Employee Absenteeism in Construction Site Toward Organization

This section is to provide the understanding on the effects of employee absenteeism in construction site towards organizations.

1. Reduce level of organization productivity: According to (Lawrance et al., 2021) the reduced level of an organization’s productivity is due to the loss of productivity of employees. This is because absence of workers disrupts the normal functioning of organization which results in the productivity loss of an organization.
2. Work quality deterioration: Quality of products such as construction building is largely depending on construction worker. Absenteeism of worker poses a threat to construction project as it requires an immediate replacement of worker. Replacement of worker who lacks work specialization can result to produce poor quality of work or product (Lawrance et al., 2021).
3. Stress on those carrying additional workload: Coworkers who are imposed by extra workload when organizations does not intend to hire temporary replacement staff. The absent worker that contributed additional increase in workload has increased the level of stress among other workers (Alsulami et al, 2021; Mohammad Ali et al., 2024).
4. Low employee morale: Employee morale determines the job satisfaction, emotion and attitude of employees during the time the construction workers work in the workplace. According to Muhamad Zaini (2020), employee absenteeism can lead to low employee morale within an organization.
5. Increase cost: Cost of absenteeism is expensive as organization incurs both direct and indirect costs that results from absence of worker which are disruptive to the organization work flow (Lawrence et al., 2021).
6. Reduce profitability of organization: Absenteeism can reduce the profit in two ways (Lawrence et al., 2021) First, an increase in cost will definitely reduce the profit margin unless the revenue increases. Second, profit can be reduced through decreasing in revenue.

Strategies in Managing Absenteeism in Construction Site

To reduce absenteeism problem, strategies in managing the employee absenteeism in construction site will be discussed in this section.

1. Higher wages: Higher wages paid to low income workers reduces employee absenteeism as higher wages create the condition for workers to be productive and motivate them to work harder (Williams et al. 2019; DiMaria 2019).
2. Health protection: Through the health promotion in organization, it helps to ensure the health of construction workers because of workers can understand the actual condition of their health (DiMaria et al, 2019; Pujol-Cols^, et al, 2021).
3. Communication: It is important to communicate with absent employee because communication can change the behaviour of employees. Besides, employers can also get to know the actual reason of absenteeism through communication with the absent employees (Stepanek, 2019).
4. Disciplinary action: According to Arango et al. (2021), adequate punishment is necessary to implement so as to prevent the workers from absenteeism. Disciplinary action given to the absent employees can include deduction of wages, suspensions and query employee about the cases of absenteeism.
5. Incentives: According to Stepanek (2019), incentives can be rewarded in form of financial benefit such as attendance bonus. Attendance bonus in form of extra money is useful to reduce absenteeism as it can act as kind of reward to offset the unpleasant feeling of employe.
6. Provide welfare measures: Provision of welfare to workers can include housing allowances or transport allowances which are aims to ease the financial problems of workers. Provision of welfare facilities such as toilets, washing facilities, rest areas, drinking water facilities and canteen are also significant especially in construction site (Rista et al., 2020).
7. Attendance policy: According to Miraglia and Johns (2021) attendance policy provides a clear statement to employees about organization rule that must be followed by employees in the organization. This policy also defines the acceptance and non-acceptance attendance to provide understanding for employees and it is act as tool to help manager or supervisor communicates with employees.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Qualitative research method is adopted for this research to collect data and information. In this research, the qualitative research approaches are case study method and the semi-structured interview. A total of five (5) construction projects are selected from Grade 7 (G7) main contractors or subcontractor firm and this research is focused on construction sites in Johor area. Respondents are focused on both employer and employees who are working under the construction project in construction site. Employer refers to management level staffs such as project manager, human resources manager or those peoples who are taking responsibility in managing the employee attendance in construction site whereas employees refer to the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers who are working in construction site.

The analysis for collected data that obtained through semi structure interview adopts content analysis method to analyze the feedback given from respondents. The method of data analysis is using coding method and frequency distribution so that three objectives in this research can be achieved.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A case study approach and semi-structured interview instruments have been adopted in this research. After interviewing all the 50 respondents from the total five construction projects, the results have been analyzed. Table 1 shows the absenteeism rate of the five construction projects.

Table 1 Absenteeism rates of the five (5) construction projects

According to Table 1, the absenteeism rates of five (5) projects are mostly above 2.4% which is very approximate to maximum acceptable standard except the Project B which consists of absenteeism rate of 1.85%.  Although the absenteeism rate of is under the acceptable standard, however it is still close to 3% which is the maximum acceptable absenteeism level.

Factors of Employee Absenteeism in Construction Site

Table 2 has illustrated the analysis for the factors of employee absenteeism in construction site among the five projects based on perspective of employees that have been divided into three (3) categories which are skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers.

Table 2 Factors of employee absenteeism in construction site among the five (5) Projects– Perspective of Employees (Skilled, Semi-skilled and Unskilled workers)

Based on the perspective of skilled workers among five projects as shown in Table 2, majority agreed that psychosocial hazards the factor causing to employee absenteeism in construction site is work fatigue with a maximum frequency of 10 whereas based on the perspective of semi-skilled workers among five projects, majority agreed that illness and disease is the significant factor that leads to employee absenteeism in construction site with a maximum frequency of 11. For the unskilled workers among five projects, majority believed that work fatigue is the key factor that causing employee absenteeism in construction site with a maximum frequency of 12.

In overall, based on the perspective of all employees as shown in Table 2, the significant key factor of psychosocial hazards that leads to employee absenteeism in construction site after analysis of all employees among five projects is work fatigue with a maximum frequency of 30. To sum up, it was explained that the long working hour accompanied with the nature of work in construction site which has to stand at most of the working time can lead to the fatigue of workers.  In addition, work fatigue is also result from the working overtime when the project is rushing or when it is required to help in completing the tasks of absent co-worker. Furthermore, majority of the respondents also indicated that work fatigue is result from the heavy workload allocated to them. Since heavy workload caused large energy consumption and insufficient rest, therefore it became a key factor that causing employee absenteeism in construction site. On the other hand, the least significant factor is gender with the frequency of 1. Majority of the respondents explained that there is no female work in construction site except the respondents under Project B.

While Table 3 shows the analysis for the factors of employee absenteeism in construction site among the five projects based on perspective of employer.

Table 3 Factors of employee absenteeism in construction site among the 5 Projects– Perspective of Employer

According to Table 3, the finding based on the perspective of employer show that the significant factor that leads to employee absenteeism in construction site after analysis of all five projects is illness and disease with a maximum frequency of 5. To sum up, total of five employers from five projects believed that illness and disease is the main reason that caused workers absent from work as illness caused uncomfortable feeling and can weaken the immune system of workers.  Since workers unable to station in construction site, this becomes a part of reason for employee absenteeism. On the contrary, less significant factors in the perspective of employer are gender, education and work stress.

Effects of Employee Absenteeism in Construction Site Towards Organization

Table 4 has illustrated the effects of employee absenteeism in construction site towards organization among the five (5) Projects.

Table 4 Effects of employee absenteeism in construction site towards organization among the five (5) Projects

Pursuant to Table 4, the main effect of employee absenteeism in construction site that will bring to the organization is reduced level of organization productivity with a frequency of 5. It was explained that it will have no productivity for the absent worker, and this reduced the overall productivity in construction site.  Besides, the absent worker is sometimes replaced by the worker who has the different job scope with absent worker. Therefore, loss of productivity occur due to the replacement worker is lack of proficiency than the absent worker. In addition, organization productivity reduced is also result from the absent worker who is being replaced by co-worker who has the same job scope. However, since the co-worker need to complete double work on time, working overtime is needed. Long working hour lead as classified in psychosocial hazards to fatigue which then reduced the efficiency of co-worker. As a result of co-worker cannot achieve the same productivity of absent worker, productivity reduced.

On the other hand, the least significant impact is stress on those carrying additional workload with a frequency of 1. Project A, B, D, and E were not considered stress on those carrying additional workload as an effect that will bring to organization due to they think stress of workers will not bring major issue to the organization.

Strategies Used in Managing the Employee Absenteeism in Construction Site

Table 5 has illustrated the strategies used in managing the employee absenteeism in construction site among the five Projects.

Table 5 Strategies used in managing the employee absenteeism in construction site among the five (5) Projects

According to Table 5, the main strategy used in managing employee absenteeism in construction site is provides welfare measures to construction workers with a frequency of 5. It was explained that provide welfare measures to construction workers is basically related to provide basic facilities such as housing accommodation, sanitary facilities, bank facilities, provision of drinking water and canteens as well as the transport facilities. This tends to reduce the absenteeism case as this brings lots of convenience to construction workers especially the bank facilities provided to workers so that workers do not need to absent themselves to go the bank in town to transfer money to family. Apart from that, provision of welfare to workers also makes them feel to have a sense of belonging in the workplace. Sense of belonging able to make the workers happy and satisfied which can then reduce the absence of workers on site.

On the other hand, the least significant strategy is attendance policy with a frequency of 2. Project B, C and D were not considered attendance policy as a strategy due to attendance policy is usually used to manage the staff but not the construction workers.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, construction workforce management is always challenging especially on site, whereby employer has to paid extra attention and adopt an effective strategy so as to manage the absenteeism rate in construction site. Therefore, the absenteeism factors which based on the perspectives of employer and employees identified for the effects of absenteeism that brings to organization evaluated and the strategy determined should be highly focused by the employer to control the absenteeism issue in construction site. In this way, both the employer and employees in construction site will obtain the most benefits, leading towards the successfulness of the overall project performance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported / funded by Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) under Research University Grant (GUP 2017). Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) with Grant Number: PY/2017/01740, and under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) with Grant Number: FRGS/1/2021/SSO/UTM/02/18.

The author would like to thank Soh Hui Qi for helping in the preparation of data collection for the completion of this study.

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