Rising absenteeism has been reported on Alberta construction projects. Absenteeism can create detrimental impacts on construction projects, including increased manpower complement to meet staffing needs, loss of revenues as a result of not meeting project schedules, underutilization of capital investments, interruption of work flow and task accomplishment, and increased overtime and employee fatigue, all of which result in a loss of significant dollars. In order to develop best practices to help in reducing construction workforce absenteeism, the major causes of absenteeism need to be identified, so that effective mitigation strategies can be developed.
A methodology has been developed to categorize the causes of absenteeism and identify demographic factors and market conditions that may influence absenteeism. A detailed questionnaire to collect information from tradespeople on the causes of their absence and potential strategies to address these causes has been developed, together with an absenteeism tracking database to analyze the responses to the questionnaires and report on the results. This methodology is ready for implementation by any organization interested in tracking the major causes of absenteeism on its jobsites, in an effort to identify appropriate mitigation strategies that can help reduce absenteeism.