05 October 2023
The Chartered Institute for Professional Development (CIPD) and health cash plan provider Simplyhealth have jointly released findings from a survey highlighting a rise in employee absenteeism across the UK workforce.
Some of the key findings are:
- employees were absent for an average of 7.8 days over the past year, a significant increase from the pre-pandemic rate of 5.8 days
- stress played a significant role in both short- and long-term absences, with over 76% of respondents reporting stress-related absenteeism in the past year
- heavy workloads were identified as the primary cause of stress-related absence (67%), followed by management style (37%). Minor illnesses (94%), musculoskeletal injuries (45%), and mental health issues (39%) were the top reasons for short-term absenteeism
- long-term absence was primarily driven by mental health problems (63%), acute medical conditions like stroke or cancer (51%), and musculoskeletal injuries (51%)
- covid-19 continued to be a significant cause of short-term absence for 37% of organisations
- 69% of organisations offered occupational sick pay leave schemes for all employees, 82% provided an employee assistance program (EAP) and 53% had a stand-alone wellbeing strategy, marking an increase from 50% in the previous year
- the public sector reported significantly higher average absence levels (10.6 days per employee) compared to the private sector
- smaller organisations with 50 or fewer staff recorded lower sickness absence rates (5.0 days per employee) than larger ones with 5,000 or more employees (13.3 days per employee).
Read the full news story, here.
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