Absence

UK businesses lost £103 billion to employee sickness in 2023, with mental health, stress, and musculoskeletal injuries driving long-term absences. Presenteeism—working while unwell—costs an additional £25 billion in reduced productivity, revealing deeper systemic workplace culture issues beyond seasonal illness.

UK sickness absence is forecast to cost businesses £22 billion in 2024, with 158 million days lost due to illness. This represents a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels, prompting employers to implement flexible working policies and improve workload communication to reduce absences.

Research from Towergate Employee Benefits shows 86% of international companies offer health and wellbeing support primarily to reduce employee absence. While most track absence rates, only 65% use these programs to help workers return to work sooner.

A third of employers fail to record the impact of sickness absence, missing opportunities to provide targeted health and wellbeing support. New research shows 69% of organizations track sickness impact, up from 59% in 2023, but 27% still don't measure these critical workforce health metrics.

40% of employers say rising workload is the main reason for their staff being off work with mental health illness.

New research has examined the most common causes of all NHS staff with psychiatric illnesses proving the leading cause of employees missing work.

A huge number of Brits are working through pain, with a quarter reported to be taking painkillers due to a work-related injury, new research suggests.

It's no secret that UK employers are currently struggling with sickness rates – particularly amongst the young. The question is what to do about it!

Concussions are surprisingly prevalent in the workplace and can have significant implications for employee productivity, safety, and overall job satisfaction.

A startling epidemic of illness are plaguing the UK's working-age group, and the ONS expresses concern over the rising numbers exiting the job market.