Redundancy threat reduces absence levels

CIPD survey

The economic downturn has contributed to a ten per cent absence fall (from an average of ten to nine days per person) in the past year according to Employee Absence 2003, the UKís most authoritative survey into absence, published by people management experts, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The survey of over HR 1,300 practitioners also shows that three quarters of organisations believe that minor illnesses such as colds and flu are the most common causes of absence. Around three quarters of organisations cite minor illnesses as the main cause of absence compared with just over half last year.

Stress is still the most common cause of long-term sickness absence among non-manual workers and is alarmingly high in the public sector. Almost 60% of public sector organisations cite stress as the leading cause of long-term sickness absence, more than double the number of the private sector. The findings echo the CIPDís employee attitudes survey published in December 2002, which showed that public sector workers are more stressed than private sector workers. This research showed that 38 per cent of NHS workers and 30 per cent of local government workers find their work either stressful or very stressful against an average of 25% for all workers.

Absence rates are higher among public sector employees (10 and a half days per year) than private sector workers where the average is seven days. Workers from the North-West of England top the regional absence league with an average of 10.4 days per year, which compares with a London average of 7.6 days per year.

Mike Emmott, CIPD Head of Employee Relations comments, ìThe biggest single influence on absence levels is management action. However, where employees feel more insecure this can also have an effect. Job insecurity can undermine morale and commitment and so push up absence rates. However, the threat of redundancy may also lead to a fall in sickness absence.î

Says Emmott, ìThis aside, organisations can take some credit for reviewing their absence management policies and practices over the last couple of years and adopting more sophisticated approaches. Return-to-work interviews are seen as the most effective for tool for managing short-term absence by a wide margin.

ìThere are considerable variations in absence levels between individual sectors. This is partly due to differences in the nature of work and composition of the workforce. For example, local government and the NHS report higher absence levels and this matches other evidence that these sectors have particular issues about work-life balance. In other sectors however, including IT, consultancy, legal services and the media, absence levels are barely more than half the national average.î

Other key findings include:

* Almost a third of organisations say that job insecurity has increased during the past year, twice as many as those who say that job insecurity has decreased. Of those organisations who report an increase in job insecurity, almost half attribute the fall in absence to the threat of redundancy.
* The cost of absence has increased from 522 per employee to 567 during the past year.
* The highest absence levels are found in food, drink and tobacco (13.4 days per year), agriculture and forestry (12.5 days), textiles (12.2), local government (including police and fire) (11.5) and health (11.4).
* The lowest absence levels are found in consultancy (4.7 days per year), IT (5.5 days), media and publishing (5.6), legal and property services and construction (5.8) and financial services (6.7).
* Over 90% of HR practitioners believe that absence is costly to the organisation but less than half monitor this cost.
* Back pain is the most common cause of long-term absence for manual workers, whereas stress is the most common reason among non-manual workers.
* Three quarters of organisations have made changes to their approach to absence in the past two years. The most popular initiatives include the introduction or revision of monitoring procedures and the introduction of new or revised absence management policies, cited by 69% and 62% of organisations respectively.
* Return to work interviews are seen as the most effective way of managing short-term absence (cited by 60% of organisations) - almost double that of the next most effective method, disciplinary procedures (31%).