How sickness absence is affecting the life of workplaces

How sickness absence is affecting the life of workplaces

More than half of employers in a new survey have reported that higher levels of sickness absence had led to lower productivity.

The research among 233 UK employers by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) also found that absence had caused a decline in the quality of overall services being delivered by the organisation (36%); a fall off in the levels of employee morale (31%); and a negative effect on financial returns (26%).

Something contagious in the culture

Latest figures have confirmed how the UK has struggled to keep people in work, whether in terms of long-term or short absences. The TUC recently reported that the number of working days lost to work-related ill-health has risen by a third since 2010 (34 million days lost in 2023-2024, compared with 22 million in 2010). The most common causes are now said to be stress, depression and anxiety

In terms of a response to the problem, 51% of employers in the REC survey said they were introducing flexible working arrangements; 40% were enhancing training and guidance on workplace health and safety; 37% were providing better education on general health and wellbeing; by comparison only 30% were investing in employee assistance programmes, counselling, and mental health support.

What are the real causes?

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “We need to do more to make work and workplaces a source of positive wellbeing and not the opposite. Too often it seems that the pressures of work, the design of jobs, the stress of targets and forms of management, only generate a spiral of unease and ill-health. And that leads to a culture of stress and sickness. Offering more flexible working and education on wellbeing won’t have any effect because they don’t help deal with underlying problems.

“EAPs provide essential professional support for helping people actually face up to the roots of issues and find workable solutions, and not allow problems to build and accumulate. In the same way HR and management need to be making sure they are working with their EAP partner to identify trends and issues in particular areas of the organisation and taking action on employee experience and culture.”