An interesting article in the (London) Times last week revealed that workplace absences in Britain are at their highest in a decade.
Over the past year, British employees are reported to have been absent for an average of 7.8 days, two entire days more than the rate before the pandemic of 5.8 days.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the professional body for the human resources sector, and the healthcare company Simplyhealth are reported as calling on employers to have an open and supportive culture on health issues and give staff access to flexible working options and health services.
Their survey, which analysed trends in 918 organisations with 6.5 million employees, found stress to be a significant factor in both short-term and long-term absences, with 76 % of those surveyed reporting stress-related absence in their company in the past year.
The biggest cause of short-term absence was reported to be minor illnesses, followed by musculoskeletal injuries and mental health. The latter is reported as the top cause of long-term absence, followed by acute conditions such as stroke or cancer and musculoskeletal injuries.
The article reports that a third of British organisations found that Covid-19 was still a significant cause of short-term absence.
The report also indicated that British companies were attempting to address health and wellbeing issues, with 69% offering occupational sick pay leave schemes for all employees and 82% providing an employee assistance programme.