At Absence Anonymous we’ve rounded up some of the many articles written about absenteeism. We’ll be updating these pages regularly so come back again for the latest news, research results, latest industry thinking and anecdotes.


Gartner Research Report – Jan 2009
Managing Employee Absence: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, and Time Is Money
Employee absence can account for more than 3% of direct payroll costs. Yet, surprisingly few organisations manage this increasingly important issue effectively. Gartner says that HR and IT should work together to implement self-services and simple analytics to support effective absence management policies. Read the report

Institute of Directors’ Briefing on sickness absence
Businesses lose a lot of money through sickness absence, not all of it medically justified. While many of the issues can be handled on the basis of give and take, there are times when clear policies and decisive action are needed.
Read the Directors’ Briefing

Talking Point – City Talk Radio
Simon  Macpherson was interviewed by Duncan Barkes on City Talk Radio during a show  where the topic of the day was “should anyone ever use the weather as an excuse for absence?” Listen to Simon and Duncan chat about the  issues and hear some useful advice for employers.

The Work Clinic Blog from Personnel Today
Up to the minute comments on HR, absence, productivity and practical advice from one of the UK’s leading personnel publications.
Read more here

Cold Remedy urges workers to “take a sickie”
Media coverage was rife after a cold remedy supplier promoted a new website urging workers to take day off sick and offering advice and suggestions to keep them occupied from their bed.  Business groups reacted furiously saying that it encourages people to take time off and in a recession-hit environment that’s the last thing employers need.
Read more here

Long term sick employees to accrue holiday making it even harder to manage absence
Business groups warned this week that the latest ruling from the European Court of Justice on holiday accrual for  workers  on long term sick leave will have a major impact on firms already trying to stay afloat. Tim Marshall, partner and UK head of employment at law firm DLA Piper, said: "The ruling will increase the complexity of managing absence from work by allowing workers to take accrued holiday when they return to work, even after many months or more than a year off. Besides the financial burden, this potentially could make integrating an employee back to work and balancing workloads extremely difficult," he said.
Read more here

Sickies and long-term absence gives employers a headache: CBI/AXA Survey
Absence from work cost the UK economy £13.2 billion last year as the average employee took almost seven (6.7) days off sick, while the gulf between absence rates in the public sector and the private sector grew to a record level. The latest CBI / AXA Absence Survey showed that average absence levels across the public sector stood at nine days, which is 55% higher than the 5.8 day average of the private sector.
Long-term absence - CBI survey


The War on Hooky: BusinessWeek
Save your sniffles and scratchy-voiced emails – employers have slick new tools to fight absenteeism. When it comes to your underlings, do you look the other way when the poor souls fake a sick day so they can loll about? Such a luxury may soon be a relic of the analog past. The corporate cost slashers have a fresh target in their sights: the absent employee.
Fighting absenteeism - BusinessWeek article


Catch up or give up: The Manufacturer
The good news? Technology is increasingly helping many of your HR brothers and sisters play a more strategic role. The bad news is that most of them aren’t in manufacturing. Although, according to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), more HR departments in general are adopting HR information system (HRIS), manufacturing’s share lags way behind both private and public sectors.
Absence management software - The Manufacturer article