Imagine coming to work one day and receiving a report that says because of the significant amount of worker absenteeism in a department, you may have a management or leadership problem there!  Further imagine additional reports that indicate employees who seem to need more sick days than the organizational norm.  Further imagine another report that calculates which employees should pay higher health care premiums based on obesitity or other health related issues.

BusinessWeek (Nov. 12, 2007) talked about the evolution of such tools inlight of such facts as 15% of labor costs cover non-productive time; and that over 50% of surveyed companies indicate that unscheduled absences have reduced sales and customer satisfaction levels by as much as 40%.

While business intelligence software can serve as an organizational watch dog, and potentially open up all kinds of litigation and lawsuit challenges, the real issue still is a management one.  Happy and content workers who have defined and measureable goals and expectations come to work.  They take care of the customer.

Before investing in after-the-fact action, it may make more sense to review how your organization views your most important asset--its people.  If they are only seen as a cost center, then you will bear a huge cost.  If they are seen as an asset, your customers will continue to remain satisfied--and your customer.