To continue reading please register or login to your OHW+ account.
A new website has been launched to show companies just how much money they are losing when staff go off sick.
The site, www.costofabsence.com, is guaranteed to give employers a headache as they discover how much of the estimated £13bn a year UK companies lose because of sickness absence is theirs.
Calculations are based on the type of industry, postcode, number of employees and average employee salary.
Using data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s 2006 Absence Management<I> survey, the website has calculated that a telecoms company with 100 staff tops the table with a bill of £123,400.
Companies in the electricity, gas and water field come second, with the cost of ill health standing at £100,600 a year. The health sector is in third place, saddled with a £77,800 sickness absence price tag.
Ann Greenwood, director of business markets for Bupa Health Insurance, said: "Businesses need to understand the impact that sickness absence can have on them, in terms of their performance, productivity and efficiency, as well as the effect it will have on their employees.”
