The ONS released new data at the end of April 2023 showing the percentage number of hours lost in 2022 due to sickness or injury now stands at 2.6% an increase of 0.4% from 2021 and this is the highest it has been since 2004, we also have a record high of the estimated number of days lost at 185 million days in 2022.

Sadly this is an astronomical increase on pre-pandemic levels, with an additional 47.7 million days lost.

I was surprised to read recently 15% of employers aren’t logging sickness and absence in their businesses and 67% don’t track the impact that these lost days have on their business activities.

I imagine that this new era of hybrid working makes it much harder for employers to monitor absence, we came back into the office as soon as we could after lockdown and we now all work from our Romford office full time, so if there was any sickness it would be visible and easy to track.

Some of the areas that employers are monitoring how absences are impacting their businesses include:

• Agency staff costs and the hours covered by other staff in the office.
• The costs associated with SSP.
• Logging the number of hours lost.
• If there is a reduction in productivity, this is easier in some businesses than others.
• Management costs, these are difficult to measure as they are indirect costs to the business.

It’s great to see the UK performs well against other countries for sick leave with an average of 5.8 days per year, with the lowest being Switzerland at 2.4 days, France sits at 8 days, Poland at 14.8 and Germany at an average of 18.3 days a year. This is research carried out by Mitrefinch and it’s fascinating that those countries are more generous with their annual leave entitlement.  Sick leave causes a major strain on an economy, but it’s good to see that the British workforce is one of the better performers.

If you are looking to work with a recruitment agency that understands and appreciates your business challenges get in touch for an initial free consultation today.