Work absenteeism is an ongoing problem for many companies. When employees take sudden, unannounced time away from work, productivity grinds to a halt, projects stall, and time is lost. And time, as they say, is money.

Absenteeism is, quite simply, how we refer to unscheduled employee absences from the workplace. There are many legitimate reasons for employees to miss work, such as sickness or family emergencies. But what if there was a way to decrease the biggest factor behind workplace absenteeism? Would your company be willing to take on an extra initial expense to improve long-term business profitability?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 72 percent of all absenteeism from the workplace is the result of employees missing work to attend to child care related issues. That means over two-thirds of an estimated 2.8 billion work-hours lost over the past year came as the result of parents and grandparents taking time off from work to attend to young ones.

Even when they're in the office, "presenteeism" (when employees are physically in the office, but unable to work efficiently due to mental distraction or distress) is a looming productivity problem for employers. If workers are distracted, stressed out, or overly concerned with their home and family life, then they can't be as productive as they could otherwise. For example, here's a tidbit to consider for the upcoming summer season when school's out and parents need to find ways to fill 8-10 hours of daily child care: the average family spends 12 hours (a figure reported in the April 2007 issue of Employee Benefit Plan Review), per child, to find caregiving options when their children are out of school. And they're using up work hours to solve their child care dilemma.

One solution employers turn to when combating absenteeism and presenteeism is to help provide child care for their employees. That can come from offering on-site child care or day care center scholarships, helping employees arrange babysitter co-ops, offering flex-time or telecommuting programs, or starting partnerships with child care-providers that give staff discounts on memberships and access to nationwide databases of caregivers.

Yes, some of these initiatives can come at additional initial expense, but it can pay huge dividends for the company. Other solutions are free and only require a shift in workplace mentality and policy.

One study reported "substantial benefits from [companies] offering child care services:"
-       62 percent of respondents reported higher morale
-       54 percent reported reduced absenteeism
-       52 percent reported increased productivity
-       37 percent reported lower turnover

In the long run, companies can save money by taking the needs of their employees' families into consideration when creating benefits packages or workplace practices. The same Department of Labor study reports that the funds an employer spends to help with caregiving give payback of 2.5 to five times the amount invested. That's quite a rate of return.

Here at Care.com—a company I founded to help families connect to babysitters, nannies, and other child care providers—we've implemented several family-friendly child care polices and tried to create a work environment that celebrates flexibility and work/life balance. For example, 40 of our customer-service employees are stay-at-home moms who work virtually and are members of what we like to call our "Mom Force." They have the flexibility to stay with their children, run their households, and work when it's most convenient for them. We, in turn, have a group of extremely driven, dedicated, happy, and motivated team members. We also offer our in-house employees the flexibility to work from home when need be, part-time employment, an on-site play room for the kids, and free access to our service so they can find babysitters and nannies of their own.

As both a CEO and a working mom of two, I've seen firsthand the great rewards these employee benefits bring to both sides of the table. Absenteeism will always be an ongoing problem in the workplace, but providing access to child care, elder care and other caregiving services can address the largest motivating factor behind employees not showing for work. I hope this brief post gets other companies thinking about adding services to easily access caregivers as part of their employee benefits package.

Cheers!