Two thirds of UK Employees claim they work whilst sick, citing guilt as the reason

Two thirds of UK Employees claim they work whilst sick, citing guilt as the reason


Activ Absence Director Adrian Lewis comments on this story from CV Library.

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Activ Absence expert joins industry call to tackle sickness absence

Britain’s manufacturers have today urged the Government to consider giving tax breaks to tackle the UK’s chronic sickness absence problem, to help employers to pay for private treatment for employees and ease the burden on an overburdened NHS.

The call was made today by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation on the back of the UK’s biggest business survey on sickness absence and ahead of a Green Paper on workforce health to be published this summer. The survey, published with Jelf shows that long term absence is continuing to increase while, at the same time, the NHS is proving unable to support the working age population by providing timely and effective rehabilitation and medical treatment.



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France's plan to ban work emails outside work hours

Repeated reports have expressed concern that modern technology is blurring the boundaries between home and work, which some studies claim is creating a stress epidemic.

Whilst many HR commentators have argued the need to encourage people to ‘switch off’ when they aren’t in work, there are no legal guidelines on this specific issue.

The Working Time Regulations specify that no UK worker should work more than 48 hours per week, but there has been no case law as to whether or not checking work’s emails outside working hours would fall within this limit, and many UK staff continue to check and respond to work emails outside work hours. Read More

Research from Britain’s Healthiest Workplace (BHW)*, surveying more than 32,538 workers across all UK industries, revealed that high stress and lack of physical activity are causing industries to lose up to 27 days of productive time per employee each year.

While poor diet, alcohol and cigarettes have a severe effect on long-term health, it is stress and physical activity which have biggest impact on day to day productivity.

The study, which was conducted by VitalityHealth, Mercer, the University of Cambridge and RAND Europe, found that productivity varies enormously between industries, with some industries losing almost 27 days of productive time per employee per year, compared to a national average of 23.5 days. Healthcare and financial services lose 26.6 and 24.9 days per employee a year respectively, while high-tech loses just 18.9 days per employee per year.  Read more

How to Help Wellness Initiatives Work Better

UK employers may want to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees by introducing wellness initiatives, but these often don’t deliver the hoped-for results.

Workplace health studies repeatedly show massive rates of absence amongst UK workforces.  According to the CIPD Absence Management Survey 2015, UK employees will take an average of 6.9 days off sick per year, but this is significantly higher in public sector organisations.  The irony is that the public sector spends more on wellness initiatives than on any other sector.  Click here to read more...

Would you consider flexible working for women during their Menstrual Cycle?

Bristol-based company Co-Exist have made HR headlines around the globe this week as they plan to introduce a "period policy" which will allow female staff to work flexibly around their menstrual cycles.  The company employs 24 people, seven of them men, and whilst the details of the policy have yet to be disclosed, the Co-Exist plan is to allow women to take time off as needed if they feel unwell during their period and make up the time later.