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Are Sickies Damaging Your Business?
 Absence increased in 2006 as workers took an average of seven days
off sick, losing 175 million working days
and costing the economy £13.4bn, according
to the latest CBI / AXA survey.
The research revealed that long-term absence
of 20 days or more accounts for 43 per cent
of all working time lost, costing £5.8bn. In
the public sector just over half of absence
(52%) is long-term, while in the private
sector this was over a third (38%).
The survey showed that companies who offer
rehabilitation programmes and flexible
working can help employees back to work and
lose less time to absence.
Short-term absences are a key concern. The
great majority of absences are genuine, but
employers believe around 12% are suspect and
involve staff "pulling a sickie". That means
21 million days were lost in 2006 at a cost
to the economy £1.6bn.
Asked to cite the reasons behind fake
illness claims, seventy per cent of
employers felt staff are inclined to create
unauthorised long weekends by taking Mondays
or Fridays off sick, while 68% said there is
a link between sickies and holidays, and 39%
said absence is linked to special events,
such as major sporting tournaments.
Looking at all absences, the 2006 research
shows an increase on 2005, when the average
employee took 6.6 days off sick, and the
total number of days lost was 164 million.
In 2006 absence cost £537 per employee and
accounted for 3.3 per cent of working time.
The best performing organisations lost only
2.7 days per employee, while the worst lost
twelve.
Susan Anderson, CBI Director of Human
Resources Policy, said:
"We've all just enjoyed the four day Easter
weekend, but some people think they have a
right to use 'sickies' to take long weekends
or extend holidays as they please.
Unauthorised absence puts colleagues under
unfair pressure, and loses employers and
taxpayers well over a billion pounds.
"Everybody gets sick and employers
understand that most absence is genuine. It
is in nobody's interest if staff come to
work when they are not well.
"People with long-term illnesses need to
time to recover. But firms that keep in
touch with employees and offer the support
and flexible working that helps them return
to work earlier have had real success in
reducing long-term absence levels.”
The most important factor that influences
absence is organisational size. In 2006
employers with fewer than 50 staff had just
four days of absence per employee, but this
doubled to eight days in organisations with
over 5,000 employees. It may be that staff
in smaller firms have a greater appreciation
of the effect of absence on fellow
employees. Also, senior management in
smaller firms are more likely to take direct
responsibility of absence management.
Colds, flu and other minor illness were
identified by 99 per cent of respondents as
one of the top five main causes of
short-term sickness. Back pain was second
most highly ranked.
Non-work related mental ill health -
including stress, anxiety and depression -
was marked as the most significant cause of
long-term absence among non-manual staff,
identified by 72 per cent of respondents.
Among manual staff it was the second
strongest factor (63%), but back pain was
cited as the most significant (69%).
Although small businesses appear to deal
with sickness better than large businesses;
you should still see whether there is
anything you can do to help reduce it.
Stopping a few unauthorised absences and
helping to bring genuinely sick people back
to work quicker could save your business
thousands of pounds a year.
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