The Confederation of British Industry and AXA recently concluded a survey of 500 businesses concerning the effect of staff absences. The survey revealed that workplace absences have risen to around 10 million days lost in a year. The alleged cost of this was almost £12 billion. This works out to almost £500 per employee that is absent, in terms of paying the employee's salary and taking on temporary staff to cover them whilst absent.
Our View
As almost 80% of firms linked the majority of absences to Friday and Monday, it would appear that long weekends, rather than sickness was the reason for absence. Employees with no motivation will take days off when they feel like it, especially if they get paid.
Our advice to employers is to reward low levels of sickness and penalise high levels. By not paying staff when they are off sick, they will have to rely on Statutory Sick Pay (if they are off for 4 days or more) or lose pay if they are only off for one or two days. If you reward for low sickness levels, employees will be more motivated to come to work.