Taken a ’sickie’ recently?
Recent research by the CBI shows that absence is still a big challenge for the public sector. Badenoch & Clark’s Public Sector HR Recruiters’ Forum (HRRF) looks at why and how to reduce the number of sick days.
It is estimated that 1.4 billion pounds of tax payers’ money could be saved if sickness absence in public sector organisations matched the private sector. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) survey also revealed that of the 172 million days lost to absence in the UK in 2007 more than one in 10 are thought to be non-genuine. These 21 million ‘sickies’ cost the UK economy 1.6 billion pounds. Employers think that some staff are using them to extend weekends, holiday and for special occasions like birthdays and major football games. Any of these sound familiar?
Improving employee engagement is key to reducing absence rates.
Unsurprisingly, when we asked members of the HRRF how detrimental they feel absence is to their organisations, 75% of them said it was either detrimental or very detrimental. Unnecessary Absence puts undue pressure on the colleagues left in the office, gives those who are genuinely ill a bad name and impacts adversely on customer service. Over 25% of respondents reported that only 0-3% of their overall absence is down to long term sick. Therefore short-term sickness appears to be the biggest area of concern.
So what do respondents believe can be done to improve absenteeism rates?
When asked to list all of the methods to improve it: 82% agree that it’s down to managing it – through a Return to Work interview - for example. Almost half (45%) believe that rewarding employees with incentives for good attendance is key. However, resoundingly all agreed that improving employee engagement is key to reducing absence rates.
Considerations for employers
- Assess how much of an issue absence is in your organisation. Over 40% of responses to our survey did not know their absence rates.
- Work towards creating a culture of well being, to help improve productivity and reduce absence.
- Review the resources and training given to managers to effectively monitor and improve attendance levels. This will begin to send a message that unnecessary absence is unacceptable.
Consideration for employees
- Think about how taking unnecessary sick leave reflects on you and how it could jeopardise your future roles in the organisation.
- Consider how taking unnecessary sick leave puts undue pressure on your colleagues.
- If you need an additional day off work outside of your holiday entitlement, speak to your manager to see if you can come to some sort of arrangement. At least this way plans can be put in place to cover your work.
Useful links
- www.hrrecruitersforum.com The Public Sector HR Recruiters Forum is for senior HR professionals in the public sector who want to share best practice and network with like minded professionals.
- Absence survey by the CBI
We welcome your comments on this article.
Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.
One Response to “Taken a ’sickie’ recently?”
I work in Housing Management as a Project Worker and have had a few ’sick days’ over the past few years like most normal people, and have done this properly and discussed every single much needed day off with management to ensure this has never disrupted the flow of the projects I’ve worked in.
Although this article is talking about unneccessary days off, I would like to make the comment that Public Sector work can be very demanding (last I heard youth and community work was up there in the top ten for being most stressful), and with our low salaries and low holiday entitlement days per year as agency workers (even compared with other non-agency employees’ holiday entitlement within Projects I’ve worked in!), I can’t say I’m surprised there are so many ’sick days’ to extend people’s holidays. I for one was burnt out (at 25years old!!! Shocking!!!) and had to take time off work and decided to visit my family abroad last year - (at my own cost and not of the organisation or agency that I worked for).
I agree that rewarding employees with incentives for good attendance would be very much appreciated and welcomed by many staff, and might provide more motivation!