Absenteeism Costs Employers In The UK Over $100 Billion Each Year

All employees deserve time off, and there are laws enshrining these rights in most parts of the world. However, if full blown absenteeism occurs, then businesses get hit with additional expenses, and productivity falters.

Let’s look at how absenteeism impacts the UK, and what solutions are available to employers that want to minimize their exposure to it.

Damning data

The latest research into workplace absences across Britain reveals that productivity is at a low ebb, and has been falling for some time.

Each employee is losing an average of 38 working days a year, calculated based on straight-up absences as well as working hours when nothing productive is achieved.

This has resulted in costs exceeding £75 billion, equivalent to more than $100 billion, being accumulated every year. The economic burden is significant, and various factors are at play in terms of catalyzing this trend.

Workplace problems

Stress and anxiety suffered by modern workers cause poor performance and periods of absence in almost every industry.

Researchers have also found that those who are on lower salaries, and are younger, are on average more likely to exhibit excess absenteeism compared with their better-paid, older counterparts.

This might suggest that employee engagement and job satisfaction are partly to blame, yet the same study also indicates that these are on the rise.

In the current cost of living crisis, those on lower than average wages are far more likely to experience mental health turmoil. Even so, more than half of employees from across the earnings spectrum state that work-related stress is part and parcel of their current role.

Potential solutions

From an administrative perspective, businesses can use an absence management system to track time off, analyze long term data on attendance, and get better at wrangling all aspects of keeping employees productive and engaged.

In terms of tackling the underlying cause of much modern absenteeism, organizations can still stand to implement meaningful improvements to policies so that stress and anxiety don’t hang over team members.

For example, flexible working and remote working have both been used to great effect to give workers more of a balance between their professional and personal responsibilities.

There’s also the option of focusing on the health side of the equation, as experts argue there is more productivity to be squeezed from people who make positive choices in their wider lifestyle, whether that means being more active or eating right. 

Businesses that offer free or discounted gym memberships, as well as diet-conscious food options at on-site eateries, could see significant improvements in staff contentedness in this context.

Most importantly, employers need to listen to employees so that they can adjust how they operate with their health and happiness in mind.

People who love their job and look forward to getting started every day will naturally be more productive than those who clock in and tune out from 9 to 5.

The wider perspective

It’s worth noting that the UK is not alone in footing a big bill for absenteeism. It’s a common trope across the Western world, and seems endemic to a particular style of working environment which has evolved over the last few decades.

Now that there is hard data on absenteeism, as well as clear links between the causes and the potential solutions, it’s possible to change things for the better and reap benefits for employees and employers alike.

Obviously there will be costs involved, but in view of the $100 billion lost through absenteeism, they will be easy to justify, as well as being ethically sound.