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Could You do More to Prevent Workplace Absence?
As a business owner, you are probably aware
of the problems caused by employees being
absent; from sick pay costs to the hassle
and expense of covering their workload.
 The
cost of staff absence in the UK rose to £13
billion in 2005, despite the number of
absent days falling from 168 million to 164
million; according to the annual CBI / AXA
Insurance Absence Survey. The results
suggest that there is still a ‘culture of
absenteeism’ in many businesses; with 13% of
the working days lost to sickness considered
to be non-genuine (I.e.: Staff ‘pulling
sickies’) by employers.
Nearly three quarters (73%) of employers
believed that unauthorised absence could be
linked to Mondays and Fridays and almost
two-thirds (64%) thought staff may be taking
unauthorised extensions to holidays. Forty
per cent considered special events, like the
forthcoming World Cup, were a likely cause
of unwarranted absence.
This means that absence costs on average
£531 per employee per year; potentially
causing large damage to your cashflow as
well as business disruption. The good news
however, is that small businesses have
considerably lower absence levels than large
businesses; but the costs are still running
into many millions of pounds a year.
CBI Deputy Director-General, John Cridland
said: “Hard work by companies to manage
absence is clearly paying off, with overall
absence coming down. But so much more can
still be done.
“Employers live in the real world and
recognise that the majority of absence is
due to genuine, minor illnesses. Nobody
wants staff to drag themselves into work
when they are genuinely ill. But there is
clearly concern that a culture of
absenteeism still exists in some workplaces
and this must change.”
Are you doing everything you can to prevent
staff taking ‘sickies’; and are you able to
act quickly to help prevent and minimize
long term sickness? There are simple
policies you can look into to help limit
absence, the three most effective in the
survey were:
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Waiting a small period of days before
starting sick pay, ensuring that
employees considering a ‘sickie’ are put
off by the lack of pay.
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Offering rewards for good attendance.
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Providing early access to medical care
through private medical insurance.
Thereby helping to minimize long term
illness and in some cases prevent it
altogether.
Remember that the happier your employees are
in their job, the less likely they are to
take unauthorised absences; so spending a
little time to ensure your staff are
satisfied in their work could save you money
in the long term.
A range of articles on employment and
employee issues are available in our
Employment and Personal Development Portal.
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