When the Team Doesn’t Show Up: Preparing for Abnormally High Absenteeism

Business continuity often hinges on a seemingly straightforward assumption: that employees will be present. However, it takes just one sudden event to severely disrupt this critical resource.

An abnormally high absenteeism scenario occurs when a significant portion of employees (between 35% and 50%) becomes unavailable without notice, for an indeterminate period. This unavailability can last from a few days to several weeks. The issue becomes even more critical when it affects all functions, including essential operations, technical support, logistics, and management.

Such disruptions can lead to delays, service interruptions, increased workload for remaining staff, operational errors, and damage to the organization’s reputation. To prepare, it’s essential to understand the types of situations that can cause mass absenteeism.

 

Real-World Examples of Unexpected Mass Absences

Certain situations are sudden, localized, and very tangible. They can strike within hours and cause an immediate imbalance in available staff

• 🍽️ Food Poisoning: A corporate buffet leads to salmonella poisoning. Within hours, over a third of the staff falls ill.
• 🤢 Gastroenteritis Outbreak: The virus spreads rapidly. Absences multiply and occur in successive waves.
• 😷 Pandemic: COVID-19, flu, respiratory viruses… the impact can last for months, with sudden peaks.
• 📄 Work Permit Suspension: A group of foreign students accidentally exceeds the 20-hour/week limit. Their permits are suspended, and positions become vacant overnight.
• 🌪️ Inability to Reach the Workplace: Severe weather, ice storms, floods, wildfires, or tornadoes force road closures or evacuation of entire areas.

 

Scenarios Not to Underestimate

Some situations are less visible but equally disruptive. They can affect remote sites, specific employee groups, or arise from external crises:

• ⚠️ Loss of a Foreign Site: An office, factory, or several employees become inaccessible due to political instability or armed conflict (e.g., Ukraine).
• 🧊 Prolonged School or Daycare Closures: During a storm, strike, or major breakdown, several employees must be absent to care for their children.
• 🛑 Partial Strike or External Blockade: Employees refuse to cross a picket line or are paralyzed by a strike at a key partner.
• 💻 Paralyzing Cyberattack: An attack blocks systems. Remote workers can no longer access necessary tools.
• ✈️ Employees Stranded Abroad: A border or airport closure prevents a traveling group from returning.
• 🧳 Administrative or Regulatory Blockage: Changes in immigration laws or permit delays postpone the arrival of essential employees.
• 🧠 Collective Psychological Shock: An internal or external tragedy leads to a wave of work stoppages for mental health reasons.

 

Significant Impacts, Regardless of the Cause

No matter the origin of absenteeism—illness, weather event, administrative suspension, or psychological shock—the consequences are often similar for the organization. When key positions are unfilled, entire production, delivery, support, or governance chains can be affected. The impact goes beyond simply replacing an employee: it’s an entire operational and human dynamic that’s put to the test. Commonly observed consequences include:

• Slowing down or halting of critical operations.
• Revenue losses or contractual breaches.
• Damage to service or product quality.
• Risk of overload and burnout among remaining teams.
• Brand image weakened due to unmet commitments.

 

Concrete Strategies to Implement

It’s possible to mitigate the destabilizing effects of absenteeism by integrating certain continuity strategies into your organization now. These measures should be proportional to your company’s size and tailored to your operational reality. The goal is to ensure a minimal level of functioning while avoiding overburdening remaining teams or interrupting essential services. Consider the following approaches:

• Internal Succession Plans: Identify in advance employees capable of temporarily assuming other roles.
• Recall Lists or Reserve Staff Pools: Designed for quick and temporary replacements.
• Agreements with External Partners: To ensure certain key functions (partial outsourcing, temporary service providers).
• Increased Telework and Flexibility: Allows for maintaining minimal activity, even with high absenteeism rates.
• Documentation of Critical Tasks: Ensure that essential knowledge is shared and accessible.

 

Cross-Risks and Domino Effects: Employee Absence Is Never an Isolated Incident

When a large number of employees become unavailable, the impacts don’t stop at the mere lack of personnel. In practice, this unavailability leads to cascading effects, affecting upstream, downstream, and cross-functional processes.

For example, if the IT team is halved, the response to a technological incident could be compromised. If procurement staff are absent, critical orders may be delayed. Mass absenteeism can thus weaken the entire internal ecosystem, making other risks much more difficult to manage.

 

Simple Steps to Foster Genuine Resilience to Absenteeism

Even before adopting a formal strategy or investing in specialized tools, several simple, low-cost, and often overlooked actions can significantly strengthen your organization’s resilience. The aim here isn’t to implement a complete program but to lay the groundwork for possible continuity in the event of mass absences.

These steps also facilitate decision-making during a crisis, reduce confusion, and create a shared culture of vigilance within the organization:

• Map critical tasks by position.
• Train versatile internal replacements.
• Maintain accessible documentation of essential procedures.
• Create a list of reserve staff or replacement partners.
• Foster a culture of transparency and early reporting of absences.

 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

In the face of high absenteeism rates, some organizations find themselves paralyzed not because of the initial shock, but due to poor preparation or ill-advised decisions. The errors listed below have been observed repeatedly in real assignments or during simulation exercises. They highlight common blind spots, often linked to a misunderstanding of the human factor or overconfidence in existing tools and processes:

• Assuming that “everyone is replaceable.”
• Lacking an internal succession plan.
• Ignoring warning signs (burnout, tensions, etc.).
• Believing that telework solves everything.
• Failing to document critical absences during the crisis.
• Ne pas documenter les absences critiques pendant la crise.

 

Where to Start? 5 Concrete Actions to Take Now

Even if you don’t yet have a formal business continuity plan, certain actions can be undertaken today to better prepare. These measures are simple, concrete, and can often be integrated without major changes to your operations. They aim to equip you with effective response mechanisms when absenteeism becomes too high to be naturally absorbed by teams:

✅ Identify critical functions threatened by absenteeism.

🧭 Document key procedures.

👥 Create a table of potential internal replacements.

📞 Establish agreements with replacement partners.

🧠 Simulate a mass absenteeism scenario to test your plan.

 

Strategic Support to Prevent Disruption

At Benoit Racette Services-conseils inc., we assist organizations in protecting their critical operations, ensuring the safety of their teams, and maintaining client trust, even when a major disruption occurs.

With over 27 years of specialized experience in business continuity, crisis management, emergency measures, and IT recovery plans, Benoit Racette provides rigorous and confidential support, transforming complex issues into concrete solutions tailored to your reality.

🔍 Resilience Diagnostics
🛡️ Up-to-Date Business Continuity Plans
🚨 Functional Crisis Management Plans
💾 Realistic IT Recovery Plans
🧪 Tests and Exercises to Validate Your Plans and Strengthen Your Teams
🎓 Targeted Training in Continuity, Crisis Management, and Operational Preparedness

These are the tools that distinguish organizations that merely endure from those that respond with mastery. Would you like to analyze your vulnerabilities, adjust your plans, or prepare effectively?
👉 Contact us: [email protected]