Employee wellbeing, engagement and workplace absence are intrinsically linked
Employee absence is a significant cost for many organisations. An estimated 141.4 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in the UK in 2018, the equivalent to 4.4 days per worker. Unsurprisingly, the working world is now desperately trying to find out how to address this because of the huge impact that absenteeism has on productivity. At the same time, organisations have a duty of care to their staff.
The Labour Force Survey results show that approximately 10 million days were lost to stress, anxiety or depression, and statistics show that these figures are worsening year on year. Stress at work, leading to long-term absence, has more than doubled since the 1990s, yet only a third of employees receive any support to manage workplace stress.
This is bad news for business. Many organisations are now turning to wellbeing programs in an attempt to combat the ever worsening stress levels, but it has been suggested that for some companies, this is simply a move to tick a box as opposed to a reaction to genuine concern or understanding. The CIPD suggests that the majority of employers are more reactive than proactive in their approach to wellbeing (61 per cent), responding to persistent problems rather than predicting what health and wellbeing factors might impact the workforce in future.
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