OBJECTIVE

To develop and approbate the methodological approach to assessing the economic losses caused by presenteeism among employees of various companies in the Russian Federation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In 2020, the experts from the National Medical Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine created a tool for implementation of corporate programs «Improving the health of workers» (ATRIA platform). When developing the questionnaire, we used the Stanford Presenteeism Rating Scale. To calculate economic losses due to presenteeism, an adapted method for assessing the quantity and quality of work was applied.

RESULTS

By October 2021, 181 employers and 7.500 employees took part in survey. The companies belonged to the following branches of economic activity: education, science, culture (23.8%), metallurgical production (19.9%) and petrochemical production (11.6%). Low level of presenteeism was found in 31.1% (n=851) of men and 34.7% (n=1616) of women, moderate level — in 66.2% (n=1812) and 61.4% (n=2858), high level — in 2.7% (n=74) and 3.8% (n=177), respectively. Mean level of presenteeism prevailed in all branches of economic activity. High level of presenteeism was common (6.8%) among employees of public authorities and administration, the lowest level — in oil and gas sector of economic activity (2.1%). An employee with low level of presenteeism «loses» half an hour of working time per day, one with moderate level — 2 hours and 16 minutes, one with high level — 4 hours and 27 minutes.

CONCLUSION

Analysis of employee presenteeism and economic consequences for employers is a relatively new approach compared to evaluation of other indicators of labor productivity decline. This direction presents certain methodological difficulties due to its subjective nature. In this study, we developed a methodology for assessing presenteeism and assessed economic losses due to presenteeism among employees who completed a survey on the ATRIA platform.