Seeing a Spike in Sick Days?

Sick Days can really throw a spanner in the works when it comes to company productivity. Unfortunately, The Access Group 2024 sick leave report saw an average of 128 days lost to sickness in the last year. In fact, since 2019 when the world was impacted by the pandemic, sickness absence rates have been up 55%, increasing with each year.

While sickness is of course inevitable sometimes, when you start to see an increase in employee absence, it may be time to re-evaluate the staff health and wellness measures you have in place.

Invest in health

There are two big ways that you can reduce absenteeism in the workplace: prevention and employee health benefits.

While prevention is not always possible, it is the optimal outcome. Nobody wants their people experiencing health struggles, whether that is physical or mental. By ensuring that your team have access to help they need – such as a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), or cash plans for everyday health costs – you can aim reduce the number of sick days taken.

Having access to further health benefits can enable your people to help with their healthcare costs; giving them access to the care they need and reducing stress in the process!

Support your people

Showing your team that you are there for them can be a big relief in itself. By being approachable, supportive, and understanding when problems arise, your team can relax knowing that they are safe and looked after. Health and wellness doesn’t just include physical ailments, so being mindful of emotional, mental, and social wellbeing, can also benefit.

Also, putting into place adequate policies and management strategies can help to prevent increases in sick days taken too. A fair system should enable employees to be able to take sick days without jumping through hoops to get back to full health, while not allowing excessive unnecessary absenteeism.

Stop the spread!

Gone are the days of congratulating people for full attendance and forcing themselves into work while coughing and sneezing. While powering through and showing face at work may be a noble effort, all this is achieving is spreading sickness around the workplace, potentially compromising the health of others and potentially leading to even more sick days.

Encourage infectious people to stay home until they are better; with working from home being such a common practice now, if your company is able to offer remote working when well enough to work, but still contagious, you can prevent that pesky cough from spreading around the whole office.

Flexibility is key

There may be days when employees don’t necessarily require a sick day, but would benefit a lot from working from home. Where this is possible, enabling a staff member to work remotely may be beneficial for their physical and mental health. Flexibility and hybrid working can allow your team to work in an environment that is conducive to them getting better.

Contact our friendly team today, to learn more about our health and wellbeing offerings.