The rate of absence in the UK has been climbing since Covid first appeared in 2020. This year could be considered an outlier due to the drop in hours worked across the nation amidst the furlough scheme. However, the Office of National statistics revealed that the number of sick days in 2021 (149.8 million) climbed to 185.6 million in 2022.
As data is not yet publicly available for 2023, and 2024, Spacepool ran forecasted predictions that analysed the trend from 2012 to 2022 and found that 2024 is predicted to have 158 million days of absence. A considerable drop post covid, however analysing data from pre-2020, you can see that this figure is incredibly high.
Forecasted sickness absence in the UK
| Year | Days lost due to sickness (millions) | Sickness absence rate (%) | Forecasted cost to business (billions) (£) |
| 2012 | 134.8 | 2.1 | 18.7 |
| 2013 | 131.8 | 2 | 18.3 |
| 2014 | 134 | 2 | 18.6 |
| 2015 | 139.1 | 2 | 19.3 |
| 2016 | 137.3 | 2 | 19.1 |
| 2017 | 131.5 | 1.9 | 18.3 |
| 2018 | 141.4 | 2 | 19.7 |
| 2019 | 138.2 | 1.9 | 19.2 |
| 2020 | 118.1 | 1.8 | 16.4 |
| 2021 | 149.8 | 2.2 | 20.8 |
| 2022 | 185.6 | 2.6 | 25.8 |
| 2023 | 155.5 | 2.23 | 21.6 |
| 2024 | 158.0 | 2.26 | 22 |
*Highlighted in yellow are forecasted statistics, based on trends noticed in official ONS data.
What does this mean for businesses?
According to ONS, the average daily rate of pay in the UK is £139 as of November 2024. This means that the predicted 158 million days missed due to sickness absence could potentially cost businesses upwards of £22 billion, a figure that is worrying for the UK market.
What can employers do to ensure that they keep a healthy and efficient workforce?
Eugene Tavyev, CEO and Founder on Spacepool, has provided three expert tips on how employers can implement a work model that benefits both themselves and the employee when dealing with sickness absence.
Employing a more flexible working system
Modern business models often employ a flexible and more personalised working experience for employees. They do this by allowing their workforce to choose when they start and finish, ensuring that the main core hours of the day are covered, this allows employees to be able to live their personal life without fear of it overlapping with work, creating a much more sustainable balance.
Practicing effective communication of workload
One of the key things that businesses will suffer from, is a reduction in output of work whilst they have employees off sick. However, in certain instances this can be avoidable by maintaining an important level of communication with your employee on their current workload. Practise transparency with current tasks and ensure that information is always updated and available for other team members to pick up whilst covering for their colleague.
Allow for extra sick days within working contracts
Working can be stressful for everyone at some point in their life, regardless of the level that you are at. This is why it is important to be empathetic with your employees in understanding that sometimes a burnt out will occur.
To help prevent it getting to this, you can include extra allowance in their job contract for wellbeing days. This will allow your workforce to feel as though they have a net to fall back into if they are getting worn down and will make them much more likely to be open and communicate when they need time, rather than waiting for an inevitable burnout.
Joanne is the editor for Workplace Wellbeing Professional and has a keen interest in promoting the safety and wellbeing of the global workforce. After earning a bachelor's degree in English literature and media studies, she taught English in China and Vietnam for two years. Before joining Work Well Pro, Joanne worked as a marketing coordinator for luxury property, where her responsibilities included blog writing, photography, and video creation.
