According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), workplace sickness absence rates have fallen to an average of 4.4 days per employee.
This means that over the last ten years, sickness absence has fallen by nearly a third; by why has this happened? Is it the case that businesses are less tolerant of sickness absence than they once were, or is it the effect of wellbeing initiatives that have become more popular in recent years?
Whether it’s the carrot or the stick that’s more effective at reducing absence rates is open to debate, but the fact that days off due to mental health issues such as stress, depression and anxiety have increased, could be seen as an indicator that there is much work still to do on the wellbeing front.
Employers can often find it difficult to strike the right balance between providing support to those who need it, whilst ensuring that people don’t take advantage of the system. This is why a clear absence management policy should go hand-in-hand with targeted wellbeing programmes – to keep employees engaged, yet aware of the guidelines and procedures relating to sickness absence.
The two main causes of absence relate to musculoskeletal disorders (31million days lost) and minor coughs and colds (27million), which reflect the long-term and short-term absences that employers are keen to reduce. A blend of support and implementation of policies is crucial in both of these cases to ensure that people can get back to productivity as soon as they can.
Santia’s Day 1 Absence Management service provides management information to help you understand volumes of sickness, recurring patterns of sickness as well as reasons for absence at an individual and occupational group level.
As part of our Choices for Wellbeing campaign, we have designed a range of wellbeing activities to enable you to communicate the importance of staff looking after their own health and to give them a snapshot of their health as well as provide them with an opportunity to confidentially ask for advice on any health issue that may be concerning them.