Businesses given surprising advice on sick days – even though they're costing UK £30bn

Bosses have been issued surprising advice about managing workplace sickness as a report finds rising cases of it are costing UK businesses billions annually.

A new analysis from think tank IPPR revealed the cost of employee sickness to firms has skyrocketed by £30 billion since 2018, with most of the increased cost (£25billion) coming from lower productivity.

Just £5 billion was found to be due to a rise in sick days, according to the report.

The think tank has warned employers that when compelled to work through illness – because of poor work culture, limited access to sick pay, financial insecurity or other factors – staff can slow their own recovery time.

They also noted doing so can increase workers’ risk of further sickness later, and spread infectious illnesses to others – all of which decrease productivity, an outcome it said is bad for business and bad for workers.

Working through poor health was also found to be more common among people from marginalised ethnic groups, those in lower-quality jobs and workers lacking formal qualifications.

Black or Asian people are twice as likely to work through sickness compared to those who are white British, all else being equal, the think tank found.

More generally workers in the UK are among the least likely to take a sick day, especially compared to other OECD and European countries, though they’re more likely to persevere at work through illness, which can have a productivity cost.

According to the report working through sickness also had a profound effect on the quality of work with employees now losing the equivalent of 44 days productivity on average as a result of it.

This is up from 35 days in 2018. They were also found to lose a further 6.7 days taking sick leave, up from 3.7 days in 2018.

Today’s paper, the final interim report from the cross-party IPPR Commission on Health and Prosperity, argued that health and work can be part of a virtuous or vicious circle – but that the nation is currently seeing the latter.

Polling for the IPPR by YouGov found that 74 per cent of people believe the government should do more to protect public health.

The think tank is proposing a bold pro-business health plan which reimagines the role of business in health – with a clampdown on businesses that harm health with businesses that create good health scaled up.

These plans should include a new tax incentive for companies that commit to significant improvements in the health of their workforce, including the security, flexibility and pay of their staff, focused on SMEs, the authors of the report said.

It also called for regulation in the form of a new ‘do no harm’ duty for employers, regulating them on health outcomes, not just safety inputs and investment.

Investment is also needed, it said, recommending new compulsory reporting on worker health – modelled on climate emissions reporting – to help private investors differentiate between health-orientated and health-harming businesses.

Dr Jamie O’Halloran, senior research fellow at IPPR, said: “Too often, UK workers are being pressured to work through sickness when that’s not appropriate – harming their wellbeing and reducing productivity.

“This can be because of a bad workplace culture, poor management, financial insecurity or just a weak understanding of long-term conditions among UK employers.

“Our demonstration of the ‘hidden’ productivity costs of working through sickness should catalyse a change in approach. We should strive to make sure the work we do is good for our health, that we have the time to recover when we need it, and to ensure businesses both contribute to and benefit from population health. This would protect workers, boost profits and deliver growth.”