NEWS & EVENTS

The shocking news that absenteeism in the workplace is costing the UK economy £32bn a year should send a wake up to call to the region's employers.

That's the view of employment specialist Phil Cookson at city based Roythornes Solicitors, who was commenting on the research, undertaken by PwC Consultants and published last week. The figures showed that employees in the UK take on average 10 days' unscheduled absence from their jobs each year, compared to just 5.5. days in the US and 4.5 days in the Asia-Pacific region.

The study also showed that the pubic sector recorded the highest absence levels at 12.2 days, whilst technology companies recorded the lowest at 7.6 days.

Phil highlighted the need for businesses to manage sickness in a proactive and cooperative manner, but the problem with many firms is that they may not know the size of the problem.

"Many businesses still do not have a rigorous method of tracking and managing staff absences, and can be unaware how a number of small incidences can soon add up to a very costly problem.  The survey showed that 40 percent of sickness absence is 'long-term' and this in particular needs careful management.  It is quite straight forward to set up systems and procedures which monitor and record staff absences.  The skill is then learning how to analyse the figures and to have procedures in place to tackle and issues which may arise."

The Government has commissioned an independent review into sickness absence which is expected to report later this year.  It came about after the Prime Minister vowed to break the cycle of long-term absence leading to benefit-dependency.

Phil concluded

"Of course employees are always going to fall ill and that is part of running a business.  The key is to be able to identify and manage potential issues before they turn into large scale and expensive problems."