Cost of unplanned absences to organisations revealed in new survey.

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Companies looking to outsource recruitment agency timesheet management may be concerned to hear that unplanned absences cost organisations 8.7 per cent of their payroll, according to new research.

The study conducted by human resource consulting firm Mercer on behalf of Kronos revealed that the total cost of all major absence categories, including direct and indirect costs, average 35 per cent of the base payroll.

Incidental unplanned absences, which average 5.4 days per employee per year, lead to the highest net loss of productivity per day in the form of missed or postponed work.

According to Michele Deziel, senior director of core product line at Kronos, many company bosses are in the dark when it comes to realising the full cost of employee absence because "it is seen as un-measurable or dismissed as negligible".

"While most other expenses for an organization are closely monitored, employee absence is loosely tracked, and the tracking is not thorough enough to reveal the full costs," he added.

Outsourcing back office solutions such timesheet management can help businesses to stay on top of such issues.