Rumana Zahn, Wellbeing at Work programme:
Absence and stress are the modern days plagues of the workplace and are responsible for an estimated 10.5 million lost working days per year in Britain. Work related stress is the second biggest cause of employee sickness absence days in the UK, costing the economy billions every year.

Mercer Absence Survey:
While most (76%) employers can access simple data about the number of days employees are absent, only 42% can identify the cause of employee absence and only one-third have access to data on the direct cost to the organisation, according to Mercer’s 2008 Pan- European Health & Benefit Report.

Overall, one-fifth (21%) of respondents said their company could not access good data relating to the level, cause or cost of absence. Mercer surveyed 800 companies across 24 European countries last summer, revealing that, on average, employees are absent 7.4 days a year.


Why are employees absent?

Travelsupermarket.com survey reveals 27% of staff “pull a sickie” to recover from their holidays.

CIPD Annual Survey Report 2008
Minor illness is the number one cause of short-term absence for both manual and non-manual employees.

Acute medical conditions and back pain is the leading cause of long-term absence for manual workers, while stress is the main cause of long-term absence for non-manual employees. On average, employers believe that about 16% of absence is not genuine.

More: Managing Absence