Over half of respondents polled last month at the 15th Annual Benefits Management Forum & Expo in Dallas consider employee absence to be a potential problem at their companies, and 16 percent think employee absences at their companies are out of control.

"The survey results show that today employers are quick to identify the strong connection between employee absence and productivity loss," said Rebecca Auerbach, vice president of research for CORE's WorkAbility(R) Division. "Employers are thinking beyond the direct impact on benefit costs because employee absence affects so many other areas of an organization: production, payroll, morale -- even revenues."

Other survey findings:

• Two thirds (63%) of those polled say their employees' disability durations are determined by a treating physician. Surprisingly, only 6% rely on formal clinical guidelines or protocols to guide disability duration decisions.
• Almost half of respondents (48%) either feel that Family and Medical Leave Act regulations have contributed to a noticeable increase in employee absences (28%) or simply do not know what effect the FMLA has had (28%).
• 23% of those polled find that the average duration of non-occupational disabilities at their companies seems to be longer than it should be.

"Companies that feel employee absenteeism is out of control -- or even a potential problem -- need to concentrate on understanding the connection between all sources of unplanned employee absence," added Auerbach. "The most effective absence management strategies encompass the broadest range of absences, such as short- and long-term disabilities and FMLA absences."

Respondents to the survey represent more than 40 different industries, including manufacturing, transportation, insurance and finance. Company size ranges from 10 to 185,000 employees, with an average size of 9,000 employees.