Absenteeism linked to employee stress or tiredness, study reveals

Over one in six (17%) of British employees who have called in sick, despite not being ill, did so because they were tired, while 12% needed time off due to work-related stress but didn't want to admit it, figures obtained from recent Canada Life Group Insurance research suggest.

The survey discovered that employee 'burnout', caused by a lopsided work/life balance, is one of the leading causes of absenteeism and has also highlighted a concerning lack of communication between employees and their employers when conditions in the workplace are contributing to poor health.

Employer attitudes towards staff leave are also a significant cause of unnecessary absence: almost a quarter (23%) felt they had to call in sick because they had a family emergency but did not want to use annual leave, while one in ten (9%) wanted time off but instead called in sick as their employer made them feel guilty about taking annual leave.

Paul Avis, Marketing Director at Canada Life Group Insurance, comments:

"There is a big difference between calling in sick because of a hangover and doing so because of more serious problems such as stress or being overworked. While it is unlikely employees will repeatedly pull a sickie for trivial reasons, failing to address underlying issues such as workplace stress and an unhealthy work/life balance will undoubtedly result in recurrent patterns of absenteeism. This will then have a significant negative impact on business productivity.

Tensor plc supplies an extensive range of solutions designed specifically to help employers thoroughly monitor and manage absence, with our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporating a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records.

Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee's absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you'd like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.