Recession clamps down on employee sick days

A company that aims to fight employee absenteeism claims the recession is helping to reduce the amount of people taking time off work.

Last year staff taking sick days cost the U.K economy nearly 17 billion pounds with workers taking an average of 6.4 days per annum off according to the CBI and Pfizer employee health and absence report.
The main excuses for calling in sick are cold and flu, back pains and stress and Monday is the most popular day for people to miss.

Aaron Ross at absence policy company first care believes a combination of employers adopting absence policies and the impact of the recession are the main drivers behind the decrease in people pulling sickies:
“There have been improvements in terms of managing absence with more employers implementing robust absence policies; however we believe the recession has played a large role in the decrease of absence rates. Job security has been a major concern during the economic downturn and therefore many have worked during times they feel unwell in an effort to ensure their time off cannot be questioned”.

The down side to this is that people who are genuinely sick but are still turning up to work may be under more stress and can spread illness to their colleagues.
However, absence policies are on the rise with a 10 percent increase in organisations in the U.K according to the report.
First care emphasize the importance of creating a healthy working environment to tackle the problem at its roots:
“Offering access to services such as occupational health, employee assistance programmes and even gym discounts can all have a positive impact on absence rates”.