New research from NTT DATA UK, a world leader in consulting and IT services, has found that subsequent COVID-19 lockdowns, and increased anxiety around working in times of COVID, have resulted in a long-term increase of 5% in the proportion of fit notes issued for mental health reasons. A fit note is an official document […]

Although a healthy 85% of UK businesses record employee absence, according to research undertaken on behalf of GRiD, fewer employers (63%) actually measure the impact of sickness absence on their business. Of these, four in five said that it had become more difficult to record since the onset of Covid-19 as furloughing and working from […]

A third of employers (31 per cent) do not make any early  interventions to help staff return  to work in the event that they’re absent for longer than six months owing to ill health, disability or injury. Similarly, thirty-two per cent of employers don’t have any financial support in place for staff if they are […]

Parents are paying the price for taking time off work to look after sick or injured children in the shape of extra costs, cancelled holidays, unpaid leave and increased stress. New research from MetLife UK shows 76% parents taking time off work to care for children in the past two years say it has had […]

About this time every year companies start to lose employees to sickness and flu. It can cause a lot of businesses problems, finding staff to cover is often time-consuming and not cheap. But, with the cold mornings and warm afternoons we are currently experiencing, there is a need to have the office heating on in […]

Presenteeism is being talked about much more openly nowadays, due to the health problems related to it being much more acknowledged. But, why do people still do it? According to Adrian Lewis, director at Activ Absence the answer is job insecurity. Nine out of ten UK employees (92%) have gone into work despite being sick this […]

Stress (21%), anxiety (18%) and/or depression (20%) are among the real reason that UK employees call in sick – despite claiming to have a physical health problem – according to research from wellbeing provider BHSF to mark Mental Health Awareness Week (May 14th-20th). In total 42% of employees (from 1,001 full time workers surveyed) have called in sick […]

Absences are significantly impacting UK businesses in terms of productivity and the impact on other members of staff. But there are ways of keeping on top of absences, including monitoring the problem effectively, and then responding to the results, according to software specialist Activ Absence. The company has highlighted that Gatwick Airport was recently forced […]