INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Absenteeism is a serious workplace problem and an expensive occurrence for both employers and employees seemingly unpredictable in nature. A satisfactory level of attendance by employees
at work is necessary to allow the achievement of objectives and targets by a department. Employee Absenteeism is the absence of an employee from work. It is a major problem faced by almost all employers of today. Employees are absent from work and thus the work suffers. Absenteeism of employees from work leads to back logs, piling of work and thus work delay. Absenteeism is of two types 1. Innocent absenteeism - Is one in which the employee is absent from work due to genuine cause or reason. It may be due to his illness or personal family problem or any other real reason 2. Culpable Absenteeism - is one in which a person is absent from work without any genuine reason or cause. He may be pretending to be ill or just wanted a holiday and stay at home.

Many employees will, on occasions, need a few days off work because of illness, however, when absences become more frequent or long term and reach an unacceptable level, action by management is necessary. Absence from work can be expensive in both monetary and human terms. The costs incurred when an employee is absent from work may include: (i) Replacing the employee or requiring other staff to cover the absence; (ii) Inability to provide services, or achieve section and departmental objectives; (iii) Low morale and general dissatisfaction from other staff, particularly if the absence is perceived as unwarranted

1.2 TITLE OF THE PROBLEM A study on the Ways To Reduce Employee Absenteeism With Special Reference To United Electrical Industries Ltd, Kollam 1.3 NEED FOR THE STUDY The study aims at the causes of absenteeism of employees in United Electrical Industries Ltd. At present, organizations in India take real interest in controlling absenteeism. Measures to prevent strikes and lockouts have received far and greater attention. One reason for this situation may be that strikes and lockouts are more noisy and visible while absenteeism is silent and unnoticeable. The relevance of the study is that, now the company is facing a major issue of high rate of absenteeism and hope that the study will reveal the reason for it and thereby the organization can take effective measures for checking the absenteeism. 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To find out the various cause for absenteeism 2. To study the various measures adopted by the organization 3. To provide suggestions in the form of solutions to reduce the rate of absenteeism

INDUSTRY PROFILE

One of the main problems the industrial world faces now is the scarcity of energy. The demand is more and supply is less. More research is done to find out alternative sources of energy. The researches are still in its beginning phase. Till some new alternate energy is found out, the dependence will be on the existing forms. Electrically being the important among them plays a major role in almost all industries. Apart from industries, it is the basic form of energy for household purpose also. Production of electricity has become more expensive which demands careful utilization and accurate measurement. Keeping this in mind analogue measuring instruments has been replaced by electronic ones by suppliers of electricity. The share of electricity consumption of large buildings in the commercial sector is currently of the order of 7 percent of countrys overall consumption, and it is growing at about 12 percent over the last few years. Annual energy consumption in commercial buildings, which is in excess of 200 Kwh per square meter of floor area, is expected to be brought down to 120160 KWh when the standards are implemented. According to Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), residential and commercial construction has been growing in excess of 10 percent per annum, and that accounted for nearly 41 million square meters last year. With escalating power demand in Southeast Asia, most countries in the region are demanding novel electricity meters. Moreover, as increasingly more electric utilities install meters at their customers (both small power and large power consumers) site, sales for both single phase and three phase meters are increasing. Hence, the electricity meters market is witnessing stable growth. This is likely to further accelerate with the transition of electromechanical meters to electronic/digital meters.

As electricity metering and billing industry moves ever closer to full automation and computerization, electronic meters that can communicate with each other and with other electronic systems are expected to become an essential part of the network. Electromechanical meters merely measures demand and consumption of energy and are quite simple. However, with the latest electronic meters one can implement the tariff at which the utilities sell the electricity, cites the analyst of this research service. Therefore, power distribution electric utilities can sell electricity at a lesser price when the demand is low and kilowatt-hour (KWh) pricing can be high when the demand is high. Manufactures Must Offer Additional and More Advanced Technology Features To stand Apart from Competition. The Southeast Asian electrically meters market is highly active, with several public and private utilities, smaller municipalities and electronic cooperative. There is intense competition in the electricity meters market attributed by the presence of Chinese and other foreign manufacturers and suppliers in Southeast Asia. One of the main concerns that affect the local meters market is the presence of the many meter brands from China. These are typically low priced and low quality meters, which utilities are sometimes forced to opt for since such meters would meet their budget especially on household meters segment. However, companies that offer high quality meters are likely to find greater demand with certain utilities in the market and may even increase their profit margins due to the end user confidence in their products, says the analyst, with several software based and

multifunctional features such as automated remote metering and multicaliberations in demand, manufacturers will have to incorporate and more applications into their product and offer more than just the normal measurement of energy flow for billing.

The main players in the electricity measuring instrument manufacturing in India are:

HPL Socomet Pvt, New Delhi Anchor Electricals Ltd, Daman Naina Powers Pvt. Ltd, Hyderabad ECE industries, Hyderabad TTL Ltd, Noida Avener Power industries, Hyderabad. County meters, New Delhi Hemant Industries, Hyderabad ECIL, Hyderabad Avon Meters Pvt. Ltd, Chandigarh Bentec Electricals and Electronics, Kolkata Holy Meters India Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad Capital power System,Noida Himachal Energy Pvt. Ltd., Solan

COMPANY PROFILE
HISTORY United Electrical Industries Ltd., Kollam was incorporated in the year 1950 in the private sector. It is the first factory in India to manufacture Electricity House Service Meters. It is located at 3 km south of Kollam. The Company started its manufacturing activity in technical collaboration with a world-renowned measuring instrument manufacturer M/s. Aron Meters Ltd., England. It initially started with the assembly of single-phase meters with imported components for subassemblies. The company owes its origin to Shri. K.P.S. Nair, the chief electrical engineer or Travancore-cochin State and Shri. Abraham Pothen, an eminent industrialist. Major shares of the company were taken over by the Kerala Government in 1957 and reconstituted as a Public Limited Company. As usual most industries, this company also had to face certain troubles like inadequate working capital, labour unrest etc. The company gradually overcome this and started establishing steady market for the product. In 1956, a plan of diversification was initiated and manufacturing of Motor Control Gear was started with technical collaboration from Mysore Electrical Industries Limited, Bangalore. In the same year, production of poly phase meters commenced. The company entered into a technical collaboration with General Electrically of India Ltd.. Calcutta, for manufacturing of oil and air break circuit breaker up to 22 Kv rating. The Company manufactures Electricity House Service Energy Meters of both electromechanical and static types, Motor Starters and contractors. At present the company is mainly concentrating on the production of Static type Energy Meters and motor Starters. The annual turnover of this organization is about Rs.16 crores and more than 90% of the Companys turnover is from the sales of Energy Meters to KSEB, its employee strength is 140. The major shareholder is Government of Kerala and is holding 99% of the total share value. The Board of Directors of the Company comprises government nominees, usually from the Industries Department and General Manager of the Company and also from among other shareholders.

The company has been running in profit consistently since 1988 and maintains a positive net worth and negligible debt equality ratio. The Company has been maintaining excellent industrial relations and there is no instance of production loss due to labour unrest for the past 30 years. STRATEGIC INTENT The mission, vision and quality policy of United Electrical Industries Ltd are stated as follows : Mission: To become the number one supplier of electricity meters and to grab two digit share in the transformer & water meter markets in India by ensuring customer satisfaction of its products and services and continuous improvement Vision: To become the pioneers through operational effectiveness and Quality Policy: UEI and its employees are committed to develop, manufacture and marketing of house service energy meters and motor control gears, ensuring customer satisfaction of its products and services through continual improvement of the effectiveness of its QMS achieved by setting and reviewing quality objectives. Quality Objectives: customer satisfaction

UEI shall establish Quality Objectives at relevant functional levels which will bring continual improvement in the functions and thereby in the organization. The Quality Objectives focus on strategic advantage to the department as well as performance improvement. The Quality Objectives established are realistic, quantifiable, and measurable. MPRM shall suitably review the achievement of Quality Objectives and shall set suitable action plans. Also the management will assign responsibilities to the concerned managers for achieving the objectives as targeted in the MPRM.