In this post we will reveal the top causes of employee absenteeism in the UK and discuss some strategies that could help you reduce absenteeism in your business.
How Much of a Problem is Absenteeism in the UK?
Employee absenteeism in the UK recently soared to the highest level in over a decade. The latest CIPD findings revealed that UK employees were absent an average of 7.8 days between 2022 and 2023. This is an extra two days more than the pre-pandemic rate of 5.8 days per year.
The HSE calculated that, in 2022-2024, around 35.2 million working days were lost to work-related ill health. These lost days are estimated to cost UK businesses around £11 billion a year.
Top 7 Causes of Employee Absenteeism
Minor illnesses
The latest CIPD survey found that 94% of employees have been absent due to minor illnesses such as colds and migraines.
A PeopleHR study suggested that there has been a 55% increase in sickness absence rates over the last five years.
Major illnesses
While these may not be as common as minor illnesses, acute medical conditions such as cancer and stroke, and recurring medical conditions such as asthma, also contribute to absenteeism.
The CIPD survey found that 51% of respondents had experienced long-term absences as a result of acute or chronic medical conditions.
Musculoskeletal Injuries
The CIPD found that 45% of businesses had experienced short-term absences, and 51% had experienced long-term absences, as a result of musculoskeletal injuries. This could include anything from a bad back to a broken limb.
While some workplaces and some forms of work are riskier than others, remember that employees may also sustain such injuries outside of work.
Mental ill Health
The CIPD survey found that 39% of respondents had experienced short-term absence as a result of mental ill health. 63% of respondents had experienced long-term absence as a result of mental ill health.
Stress and Burnout
Stress in particular seems to be a rising problem for UK businesses. 76% of respondents reported stress-related absence over the course of a year.
Why are employees getting so stressed? PeopleHR suggests that it may be because they are taking less leave. Their latest Annual Leave Report found that employees took 7.67% less leave from 2022 to 2023. This overwork is evidently taking its toll.
Family Responsibilities
Unplanned absences cannot always be attributed to mental or physical health. Sometimes family responsibilities may have to take precedence over work, particularly if there are any issues with childcare, or if employees are looking after elderly relatives.
An emergency in the home can also contribute to unplanned absence, such as if an employee finds a leak and has to call a plumber.
General Dissatisfaction
One study found that unhappy employees tend to take nine more sick days per year than happy employees. Workplace dissatisfaction could contribute to certain other underlying causes of workplace absenteeism, such as stress, burnout, or mental ill health.
How To Reduce Employee Absenteeism in Your Workplace
If your workplace is suffering from high absenteeism rates, first it will help to understand the sort of problem you’re facing.
Conduct a workplace survey, either anonymously online, or via confidential face-to-face discussions. The aim is to establish how employees feel about their work and their workplace, so you can identify any sources of stress or discontent.
You should also conduct return-to-work surveys following any period of absence. Make it clear that this is not a means of monitoring employees. Rather, it’s a strategy for offering whatever support you can.
If an employee takes time off due to an injury, for example, a return to work interview could help you identify new safety measures that could help prevent any future accidents in the workplace. It could also help you determine the adjustments you could make to help the employee return to work, so as to prevent any future absenteeism.
Implement an Employee Wellbeing Scheme
An employee wellbeing scheme can help reduce stress and dissatisfaction in the workplace. Not only will this help reduce unplanned absences, but it could also help boost your business’s productivity. The World Economic Forum found that businesses that invest in employee wellbeing have seen up to 115% growth in earnings.
If you want to make the business case for an employee wellbeing scheme, be sure to read our full guide to the strong links between employee health and productivity.
There are many aspects to an employee wellbeing scheme, including:
- Flexible working to promote a good work/life balance. Flexible working arrangements also make it easier for employees to balance their family responsibilities with their work responsibilities.
- Wellness initiatives, including cycle to work schemes and subsidised gym memberships.
- Changes to the workspace, including ergonomic office furniture, reduced noise, and increased natural light.
For more, you can read our full guide to implementing an employee wellbeing scheme.
Encourage Employees To Take Their Leave
Above we mentioned that employees took 7.67% less leave from 2022 to 2023. It seems that UK employees feel pressured to work, which is contributing to increased stress, burnout, and absenteeism.
One way to tackle this is through encouraging your employees to take all the leave to which they’re entitled. And a good way to work towards this is through offering a leisure travel scheme as an employee benefit.
This essentially means that you will cover your employees’ leisure travel, as well as their business travel. If employees know that they will be covered for any of the losses or expenses they may incur as part of their holidays, then they may be more likely to take a holiday in the first place.
Read our full guide to the benefits of offering leisure travel schemes as an employee benefit.
Offer Employee Health Insurance
Workplace health insurance can give your employees round-the-clock access to private healthcare services, with no need to put up with long waiting lists.
If employees can get quick checkups whenever they need them, minor health problems may be less likely to escalate into major health issues.
Add dental care to your health plan and employees will have even more coverage, which could help further reduce absenteeism. And allow employees to add family members to their workplace health plan and you could make a major difference to employee engagement and job satisfaction rates.
Flexible Insurance Schemes From Capacity Insights
At Capacity Insights, we specialise in providing bespoke travel insurance and health insurance schemes for businesses of all sizes.
Our tailored services can help you address some of the root causes of absenteeism in your business. And through offering outstanding insurance products as employee benefits, you could see a boost to employee productivity and job satisfaction.
Whether you’re looking to build an employee benefit package from scratch, or you wish to change or add to your current package, we can tailor a scheme that truly meets your employees’ needs at a price you can afford.