Employee Health, Communication and Absenteeism 1 1 Running head: EMPLOYEE HEALTH, COMMUNICATION AND ABSENTEEISM Employee Health, Communication and Absenteeism

Absenteeism figures are increasingly applied as an integrated measure of health in the working population. However, a comprehensive overview of employee well-being (compromising the relative impact of physical, psychological, and organizational components) and how this relates to reported absence frequency and duration is still lacking. The present study investigates these relationships. The study has been conducted in a Dutch subsidiary of an international financial consultancy firm. Three types of data collection were used: a web-based survey among the firm’s employees, a physical health check, and the employees ’ absence rates reported to the company. Together the questionnaire and the health check included the following clusters of independent variables: (a) personal characteristics, (b) job characteristics, (c) physical health, (d) self-reported well-being, and (e) perceptions of organization and communication. Of the five clusters of variables, the perceptions of organization and communication variables appeared to be the strongest predictors of absence frequency. This study did not find the assumed relationship between physical related well-being and individual absence duration