Sickness absence days cost UK businesses significant amounts of money each year and with some of these perhaps being avoidable it is worth enlisting the services of an Occupational Health company who can help to provide you with access to services and professionals that can hopefully reduce the instances of some of the sickness absence days that you experience. The unplanned nature of employees calling in sick is the reason why sickness absences have such a significant impact on companies. The absence of an employee can have a huge impact on a company in many ways.
Every year, national surveys are conducted to assess the impact of absences and the reasons for employees’ absences. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development conducts this research to help inform its work and their best practice guides, which you can find on the CIPD website. The research results are divided into different business sectors, allowing businesses to compare themselves with other companies in the same sector.
The latest report has identified the following trends:
Most employees are absent from work due to minor illnesses like colds, stomach issues and flu. Around 75 percent of absences are attributed to this type of illness. This type of illness is difficult to prevent in a workplace, unless there are strict cleaning procedures and a sick policy that forces people to stay away from the office for a certain period of time. It is the only way to minimise the impact of such spreadable illnesses. Minor illnesses can be almost anything, so it’s important to track absences from work in order to identify trends.
Stress is the second most common cause of work-related absences. There are many different types of stress and those affecting staff might not even necessarily be work related. An employee could be going through a divorce, a bereavement or taken on caring responsibilities, for example. As well as occupational counselling, signposts to other counselling services could be helpful. Find out more about Couples Counselling Cheltenham by visiting https://www.cheltenhamcounsellor.co.uk/couples-counselling-cheltenham/
It is interesting to note that those who hold traditional “white-collar” jobs are more likely to be absent due to stress. Businesses can have a positive effect on this area by implementing a stress management policy and allowing staff to talk about any problems they might have at work. Occupational Health companies can provide confidential counselling services to your employees without worrying about their coworkers finding out. These are great for high-pressure work environments.
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