- Each year, 172 million working days are lost in the UK due to absenteeism.*
- The average direct cost of absence per employee is £517 a year.*
- 58% of employers are concerned with the level of employee absence in their business.**
More than 80% of employers identify absence as a significant or very significant cost to the workplace. However, only 40% of organisations actually monitor the cost of absence.†
Where the cost of absence is monitored, organisations didn’t always include all the elements that will impact their business.† The list below shows the elements that can affect your business, and the proportion of businesses that actually measure each element:
- occupational sick pay – 73%
- statutory sick pay – 61%
- costs of replacement labour – 43%
- overtime costs – 32%
- costs of reduced performance – 18%
- administration – 13%
When the cause of absence within the workplace is managed, employers benefit from more than direct cost savings alone. They’ll benefit from lower levels of absence, stress, staff turnover, and higher levels of commitment and motivation.
It’s more than direct cost savings
In 2007 the CBI estimated that the average indirect costs, such as lower customer satisfaction, could add a further £263 per employee per year to the cost of absence.* These possible extra costs are caused as a knock-on effect of the direct costs such as hiring and training replacement labour.
*CBI press release – Sickies and long-term absence give employers a headache - CBI/AXA survey 28 July 2008
**Watson Wyatt Worldwide Healthcare survey, 2005
†CIPD Absence management survey, July 2008