{"id":5507,"date":"2020-02-03T06:47:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T06:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5507"},"modified":"2021-06-15T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T09:50:09","slug":"how-much-are-sick-days-costing-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/how-much-are-sick-days-costing-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How much are sick days costing your business?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first Monday in February is said to be the biggest sick day of the year, as employees enjoy their first weekend of freedom after the relative constraints of Dry January – remember, if you’ve had one too many the night before you might still be over the drink drive limit the following\u00a0 morning. If you’re in any doubt, you should work from home and conduct any meetings via conference call<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you’re an employer, do you know how much sick days are costing your business each year?<\/p>\n

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What’s the cost of sick days in the UK?<\/h2>\n

No employer is naive enough to think that the odd employee won’t take a bogus sick day from time to time, but workers who lied to take a day off sick\u00a0cost UK businesses a combined \u00a35.6 billion in 2019, according to a recent study from, office suppliers, Viking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that sickness absences had fallen to an all-time low in 2017, this latest study reveals that the sickie could be on the rise again.<\/p>\n

The study of 2,000 UK workers looked at attitudes to taking time off sick and found that, on average, employees weren’t genuinely sick in over a third (38%) of recorded absences. This works out at 51.9 million sick days being taken in the UK in 2019, at an average cost of \u00a3107.85 per day for every business.<\/p>\n

It was also found that\u00a0lying to take time off sick days more common among younger employees, with almost three quarters (71%) of 25-34-year olds admitted they\u2019d lied when calling in sick, compared to just a quarter (25%) of over 65s.<\/p>\n

Is ‘always on’ culture leading to more sick days?<\/h2>\n

Another finding of Viking\u2019s research was that employees are facing a growing pressure to avoid taking sick days. Almost nine-in-ten (86%) 25-34-year olds reported feeling under pressure to avoid taking sick days, even if they are genuinely ill. And it seems like the ‘always on’ culture of UK workplaces could be taking its toll, as the reasons to avoid taking time off include:<\/p>\n