Absenteeism Rate Formula: Calculation with Example

Absenteeism rate is the percentage of scheduled working time lost because employees were absent without planned, approved leave. It is usually measured in days for a department, site or the whole company over a month, and it shows how much of the planned workforce did not turn up when the roster expected them.

Formula

Absenteeism rate (%) = Days of unplanned absence in the period / (Number of employees x Scheduled working days in the period) x 100

Term	Meaning
Days of unplanned absence	Days employees were rostered to work but were absent without leave approved in advance: unauthorized absence, sick days without notice and same-day leave. Half days count as 0.5.
Number of employees	Employees rostered during the period. Use average headcount if people joined or left during it.
Scheduled working days	Days each employee was rostered to work, after weekly offs and holidays are removed.

Worked example

A textile processing unit in Surat has 180 workers on a six-day week. September 2026 had 30 days with 4 Sundays as weekly offs, so each worker was scheduled for 26 days. The attendance records show 234 days of unplanned absence in the month, with half days counted as 0.5.

Scheduled working days = 30 days minus 4 Sundays = 26 per worker
Total scheduled workdays = 180 workers x 26 days = 4,680
Absenteeism rate = 234 / 4,680 x 100 = 5%
Days lost per worker = 234 / 180 = 1.3 days in the month

Result: The unit lost 5 percent of its scheduled workdays to unplanned absence in September, about 1.3 days per worker. Supervisors should check which lines and shifts account for most of the 234 days.

Deciding what counts as absence

Write down what the metric includes before you calculate it. Most companies count days an employee was rostered but absent without leave approved in advance: unauthorized absence, sick leave taken without notice, and leave applied on the day or afterwards. Planned earned leave, casual leave applied in time, holidays, weekly offs, maternity leave and approved on-duty days are left out, because the roster could plan around them. If your company includes all leave, call the figure a leave and absence rate so nobody misreads it.

Comparing absenteeism over time

Absence in India has strong seasons: festival weeks, harvest and wedding months, monsoon illness and school exams. Comparing September with August can mislead, so compare each month with the same month last year and keep a rolling 12-month average. Then compare lines, shifts and departments with each other. A single department running well above the rest usually has a supervision, workload or health problem that can be fixed locally.

Day of the week: check whether Mondays or the day after a holiday stand out.
Shift: compare night shifts with day shifts on the same line.
Individual frequency: a few people with many short absences, which the Bradford factor highlights.

Data problems that distort the rate

Missed punches recorded as absence are the most common error. A worker who forgot to punch out may be marked absent or half day by the rules, which inflates absenteeism until a correction is approved. Close the month only after pending attendance corrections are decided. Also check that weekly offs and holidays are set correctly for each shift and branch, otherwise the scheduled days, and so the rate, will be wrong.

How to improve it

Make leave easy to apply in advance, so planned absences are not recorded as unplanned ones.
Hold a short return-to-work conversation after every unplanned absence, however brief.
Look for patterns by line, shift and supervisor, and fix local causes such as overtime fatigue or unsafe conditions.
Publish the roster early and allow shift swaps, so a worker with a family need can plan instead of staying away.
Offer basic health support, such as check-ups and first aid, where illness drives a large share of absence.
Share each department's absenteeism with its head every month.

Tracking it in ZeniaHR

ZeniaHR's Attendance Analytics shows an absence grid by department and day, built on the same rules engine as payroll. Scheduled days come from Shifts & Roster, with weekly offs per shift and holidays per branch and department, and approved leave sits in the Leave Ledger. When attendance rules are on, an absent alert goes to the employee and the manager at night. For the exact rate, export the absence report or the day log as CSV and calculate.

See it on your own data

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Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate absenteeism rate?

Add up the days employees were absent without leave approved in advance, then divide by the total scheduled workdays, which is the number of employees multiplied by the working days each was rostered for. Multiply by 100. For example, 234 absence days against 4,680 scheduled workdays gives an absenteeism rate of 5 percent.

Is approved leave counted in absenteeism?

Usually not. Most companies count only unplanned absence: unauthorized absence, sick days without notice and same-day leave. Planned leave approved in advance, weekly offs, holidays and maternity leave are left out because the roster could plan around them. If your company includes all leave, name the metric clearly so readers know what it measures.

What causes high absenteeism in factories?

Common causes include illness, fatigue from long overtime, family and festival commitments, commuting trouble, weak supervision and low morale on a particular line. The pattern in your data usually points to the cause. Absence spread across everyone suggests a health or seasonal issue, while absence concentrated in one line or shift suggests a local problem worth investigating.