UK employees were absent for 7.8 days on average over the past year, the highest level reported in over a decade and two days more than the pre-pandemic sickness absence rate of 5.8 days.
According to new survey findings from the CIPD and Simplyhealth, stress was found to be a significant factor for both short- and long-term absence, with over 76% of respondents reporting stress-related absence in their organisation in the past year. Heavy workloads remain by far the most common cause of stress-related absence (67%), followed by management style (37%).
The Health and Wellbeing at Work research analysed trends in sickness absence rates and employee health and wellbeing among 918 organisations, representing 6.5 million employees. It was conducted in March and April 2023.
The top causes of short-term absence were minor illnesses (94%), musculoskeletal injuries (45%) and mental ill health (39%). Reasons for long-term absence were led by mental ill health (63%), acute medical conditions, such as stroke or cancer (51%) and musculoskeletal injuries (51%).
Sickness absence rates
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The 2023 findings also showed that over a third (37%) of organisations reported Covid-19 as still being a significant cause of short-term absence.
Organisations are attempting to address health and wellbeing issues overall, through a range of support. Most (69%) offer occupational sick pay leave schemes for all employees, while 82% provide an employee assistance programme (EAP).
Overall, 53% of organisations surveyed have a stand-alone wellbeing strategy, a slight increase from the previous survey in 2021 (50%), but significantly higher than in 2019 (40%).
Rachel Suff, senior employee wellbeing adviser at the CIPD, said: “Despite our research showing that most organisations are focusing on employee wellbeing, the considerable rise in absences across all sectors is a worry. External factors like the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have had profound impacts on many people’s wellbeing.
“It’s good to see that slightly more organisations are approaching health and wellbeing through a stand-alone strategy. However, we need a more systematic and preventative approach to workplace health. This means managing the main risks to people’s health from work to prevent stress as well as early intervention to prevent health issues from escalating where possible. It’s important that organisations create an open, supportive culture where employees feel they can come forward.”
The research found, as in previous years, that average absence levels were considerably higher in the public sector (10.6 days per employee).
Smaller organisations tended to have lower sickness absence rates than larger ones, with 5.0 days per employee recorded for employers with 50 or fewer staff, and 13.3 days for organisations with 5,000 or more people.
Simplyhealth’s chief customer officer Claudia Nicholls said: “With record numbers of people off sick, employers have a vital role to play in supporting them through workplace health and wellbeing services. They can have a positive impact on the economy and ease pressure on the NHS.
“Despite an increasing number of workplace health and wellbeing services being put in place, employees are experiencing increasing mental health issues and the highest rate of sickness absence in a decade. However, focusing on fixing sickness alone is unlikely to uncover areas where any significant improvements can be made; companies need to implement preventative health and wellbeing strategies that are supported by the most senior levels of leadership and build line manager skills and confidence to support wellbeing.”
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