ACTIVITY TWO
Introduction

The HR area I have chosen to investigate is absence/sickness levels. I chose this particular area as I knew the organisation I was researching had a particular problem with its on-going sickness levels.
After researching more about this HR area I noticed that this year overall both in private and public sectors there have been a noticeable decrease in absence levels. However this year also sees an increase in “presenteeism” – people continuing to work when not well. This can have an effect for not only the individual but the organisation. Despite decreasing absence levels, it is imperative to continue to manage absence effectively, focusing on employee well-being.

How I analysed and interpreted data

The attached graph has been taken from a Hotel’s absence/sickness levels. I have looked at each department’s sickness records and figures from the last financial year 2012. After analysing the organisations sickness over the last 12 months and having taken figures from monthly HR records, I have interpreted the data and devised a graph. Each line on the graph shows the amount of days off sick each department has had per month.

Findings

The graph shows me that the organisation’s sickness levels could be better and are below average from other similar organisations that I further researched. It shows that it has a higher level of absence in the winter months than the summer months. This could be due to temperatures of weather and employees being off with cold and flu like symptoms. Also the epidemic of the Norovirus throughout December seemed to make its way round the hotel which led to a lot of absentees.

The graph also shows me that the housekeeping department have a higher number of days off overall in the year than reception and the restaurant. I investigated this further and this led to the employees being off due to back pain issues from the cleaning of the rooms.

The graph overall states that the Hotel lost 83