All present and incorrect
Why are so many employees turning up to work sick? Are we getting healthier – or just less secure?Sickness absence is falling. According to the Office for National Statistics there’s been a 25% reduction in the UK since 1993.
Taken at face value, that statistic looks like a good thing. Maybe people just aren’t getting sick as often as they used to. Let’s just thank medical science and move on, shall we?
Perhaps not.
The real reasons behind these figures offer food for thought for employers. It’s not simply that workers are ‘less sick’. Instead, a number of factors have combined to leave employees less likely to skip work when they’re genuinely unwell – but they all involve one common theme. Insecurity.
The changing employment landscape offers some clues. Recent employment statistics point to a steady fall in UK unemployment. But dig deeper into those figures and find a complex situation that includes increases in part-time work, short-term positions, self-employment and zero-hours contracts.
One thing all these have in common is that they make it more difficult for workers to take sick leave. In many cases, if a worker in one of these roles doesn’t turn up for work, they simply don’t get paid.
Face time
But what else is behind this reduction in sickness absence?
Cary Cooper, Distinguished Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Lancaster, says the fall in sick leave can be explained by one thing – a rise in presenteeism.
In Cooper’s opinion, employees are striving to attend work when they’re ill, because they’re worried about having a work record riddled with sickness absence.
He says: “People know employers look at the sickness absence they’ve taken. So even if people are ill, they go to work.”
Cooper adds, “In a survey we did of 39,000 people, 28% said they regularly come to work when sick, which is classic sickness presenteeism. When we asked why, they said they show up when poorly because they’re concerned about job security.”
How long can it last?
In Cooper’s opinion the reduction in sickness absence will come to an end. He says: “I think we’re getting close to it bottoming out. People are getting so ill that they can’t go to work at all.”
Most worryingly, Cooper points to how the overall fall in sickness absence is helping to mask the rise of mental health concerns in the workplace.
“The most common cause of sickness absence used to be musculoskeletal illness such as backache,” he says. “Now it’s common mental disorders: depression, anxiety and stress.”
“For common mental disorders the average time off is longer than for any other illness, even cancer. And if some of the causes of your depression are in the workplace – such as bullying or an excessive workload – it’s likely to get worse if you carry on working.”
A hidden problem
John Philpott, former chief economic adviser at the CIPD and director of The Jobs Economist, agrees with Cooper that apparently positive data is helping to hide the serious issue of mental ill-health at work.
“More working days are being lost to common mental health problems,” Philpott says. “15.2 million days were lost in 2013, up from 11.8 million in 2010. Also, since people may cite other reasons for absence because of the social stigma attached to mental health issues, the underlying problem is likely to be even worse.”
Philpott also echoes Cooper’s concerns about job insecurity as a driving factor. “Sickness absence statistics don’t detect people suffering from common mental health problems who soldier on at work for fear that highlighting a condition might put their job at risk.”
He calls for a change in how we think about sickness absence, since some prevailing attitudes are exacerbating the problem. “Critics are wrong to dismiss such absence as merely symptomatic of a ‘sickie culture’”, he says. “Instead, they should direct their attention to excessively controlling management practices and insecure labour market conditions, such as the rise in zero-hours contracts, which are causing increasing numbers of workers to crack under the strain.”
The responsibility of HR
So, what can HR do to tackle the growing threats of presenteeism and mental ill health?
Cooper says HR has a vital role to play, and recommends that employers should actively evaluate the physical and mental wellbeing of their staff and identify any causes of ill health within their organisations.
“Employers should be doing stress and wellbeing audits once a year,” he says. “There are tools employees can use, anonymously, which tell employers what the causes of stress and ill health actually are.”
As far as the fall in sickness absence is concerned, Cooper says employers are fooling themselves if they think illness is simply reducing and they don’t need to worry any more.
“HR people can’t sit back and say ‘our sickness absence is low so we don’t have a problem here’,” he concludes. “We know about this issue: HR needs to carry out proper surveys and measure presenteeism so it can deal with it properly.”
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