| Sickness absence from work costs the uk economy | | | | Increasing employee engagement and reducing their |
| an estimated £100bn every year. The real cost | | | | stress levels then are good ways to combat absence |
| to your business is probably quite easy to work out. | | | | from work. Many employers however don't see stress |
| How many paid sick days were used in the last year | | | | as something they should be concerned with. After all, |
| by your employees? How much money does an | | | | different members of staff feel stressed by different |
| average employee bring in every day? The figures | | | | things - it's a very subjective experience and |
| probably aren't negligible - they could mean the | | | | employers often think should be handled by the |
| difference between profitability and loss. Sickness | | | | employees themselves. Having realised there's an |
| absence then has a big impact on businesses, but how | | | | economic benefit in taking in interest perhaps it's |
| do you minimise it? | | | | something more employers would be willing to tackle. |
| Obviously employees get ill from time to time, but | | | | What exactly can employers do to tackle |
| long-term or regular absence is surprisingly common. | | | | health-related absences? Well, making occupational |
| A good starting point is to understand why people | | | | health therapists available to employees is one option. |
| take time off work. The main culprit across all | | | | The trouble with these sort of schemes is that they |
| disciplines is stress. Stress-related health problems also | | | | generally involve outside input from a consultant or |
| tend to account for a lot of the long-term absences - | | | | outside health service, meaning they're not an option |
| employees feel that they can't return to work and | | | | for many businesses, especially when budgets are |
| become trapped in the same stressful situations they | | | | tight. |
| left. Employees that are less engaged at work are | | | | The economic downturn could be the perfect time to |
| also more likely to take a longer time off. For example, | | | | invest in employee health. Increased stresses at work |
| a minor illness like flu could cause one employee to | | | | could make for increased absences, and staff |
| take a few days off, but a less engaged employee to | | | | engagement is especially important at a time when |
| take a whole week. Stress and engagement can be | | | | everyone's efforts count towards the success of a |
| related - more engaged employees are less likely to | | | | business. Unfortunately any company making |
| be stressed because they feel supported at work. | | | | redundancies will find engagement difficult to maintain |
| Likewise, stressed employees will start to feel less | | | | but an employee health strategy could be a good |
| engaged, especially if the company does nothing to | | | | starting point. |
| help them. | | | | |