The Determinants of the Absenteeism Costs: Evidence from a Belgian Hospital

Abstract

This study assesses the association between different absenteeism-related factors and the economic costs related to it in a Belgian hospital from 2014 to 2016. During this time 1,692 unique employees worked in this hospital who cost the employer in total 2,071,000.75 euro in terms of direct absenteeism costs. After reviewing the literature about the determinants of absenteeism and the costs and gains related to it, a descriptive analysis is done to show general tendencies and correlations between the variables. It follows an econometric analysis in which multivariate regression models are used to detect the association between the variables. The direct absenteeism costs are regressed on the following factors: gender, age, health status, statute, past absenteeism behavior, seniority, weather conditions, number of legal holidays and the number of influenza incidences in Belgium. Several regression methods are used which give different results