Sick time pay is an obvious benefit for employees but, while not quite as apparent, it is no less beneficial for employers.
Company paid sick time is not federally mandated but many states and cities are enacting their own laws around it. With the rising trend, employers have been asking why they should have to be responsible for the cost of employee sick time.
However, research has shown that offering paid sick leave does not harm a business’s bottom line. While it may seem like a financial burden, the real burden lies in the consequences of not offering sick time pay.
Here are some of the ways in which this employee benefit actually helps employers in the long run.
How Paid Sick Time Benefits Employers
Reduced employee turnover
Employees become more invested in a company when they earn sick time. Employees can’t cash out sick time so they lose it when they quit their jobs. Sticking with a company makes sense because when employees start a new job, they have to wait out the probationary period and slowly accumulate sick time all over again.
Retaining employees should matter to a business because employee turnover is expensive. Anything that will help reduce this is a clear win. A fact sheet from the nationalpartnership.org summarizes the benefits:
“Replacing workers can cost anywhere from 16 to 200 percent of annual compensation. Paid sick days reduce turnover, which leads to reduced costs incurred from advertising, interviewing and training new hires.”
Improved productivity
Paid sick leave can improve worker productivity in a couple of ways, both in the employee taking the sick leave and in the staff which remain at the office.
- Rest is important for a quick recovery and going in to work does not facilitate that. Staying home when ill can help employees get better quicker so that they can return to the office and get back to work.
- Bringing the illness to the office can impair the productivity of the entire team. So often, several employees get sick at once. Keeping germs out of the office can prevent this and help keep an office running smoothly even when one person is out sick.
Fewer accidents
Workers who do manual labor, operate machinery, or drive vehicles endanger themselves and others when they work while sick. We all know how it feels to drive a car when we’re sick. Our reflexes are slower, we’re fatigued, we don’t think as clearly. Businesses can incur the cost of mistakes that sick employees make in the form of workman’s comp or even damaged equipment.
Even employees who don’t operate machinery can make expensive mistakes while sick. Mistakes involving poor judgement can be just as costly.
Less stress
There are many more benefits of employer paid sick time that can’t be quantified but which clearly support a healthy person, family, and society.
For example, employees with paid sick leave benefits can help their children when they’re sick. They also can take off time to care for other family members in need. This is important for workers’ health because when work-demands restrict their ability to care for their family, stress is always the end result.
Paid sick time helps workers manage emergencies when they arise without having to worry about the additional impact of lost wages.
How to Easily Track Sick Time
If your business pays sick time, the online time tracking system, Timesheets.com, can accrue time off based on the number of hours employees work. This method is hard to track by hand but it’s the one most jurisdictions require. An online system takes the headache out of sick time tracking. Give it a try!
