Stress is a leading cause of long-term absence

Employees take an average of 10 days off sick each year, according to Employee Absence 2002, published today by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

While Northern Ireland remains at the bottom of the sick-day league, the latest survey shows a slight increase, from the reported 9.3 working days lost, in last year’s study.

Sickness absence costs employers an average of £522 for each employee per year amounting to an estimated annual cost of £13 billion for the UK economy.

Stress is the most common cause of long-term absence (of more than four weeks) for non-manual staff, cited by 44% of survey respondents. The second most frequently cited cause was acute medical conditions, reported by 28% of respondents. For manual workers, back pain is the primary reason for sickness absence, with around 30% of the sample rating this as most important. The survey shows that long-term absence accounts for about a fifth of all absence.

The CIPD Lead Adviser on Public Policy, Diane Sinclair, said: “Our survey suggests that organisations need to do more to tackle stress among their staff. Both the reasons for work-related stress and its symptoms need to be managed.

“The respondents to our study believe that keeping in regular contact with the absent employee and involving occupational health professionals are the most effective ways of getting people back to work after a long period off sick.”

Just under half of employers participating in the survey have set targets for a reduction in aggregate absence rates. Where such targets are in place they typically take the form of a reduction to between 3% and 3.9% of working time – around seven to nine days per employee per year.

To get people back to work after a long period off sick, employers most commonly maintain regular contact with the employee, conduct return-to-work interviews, and offer the employee reduced working hours on a temporary or permanent basis.

Strategies to minimise the incidence of long-term absence in their organisations include: providing sickness absence information to line managers (used by 81% of organisations); absence triggers (78%); involvement of occupational health professionals (77%); reducing sick pay after a specified period of absence (76%); and disciplinary action for unjustified absence (75%).

The most common cause of absence for both manual and non-manual employees is minor illness such as colds or flu.

(SP)