| Article Index |
|---|
| Overview |
A link between job security and mental health problems is also revealed in the survey. Employers planning to make redundancies in the next 6 months are significantly more likely to report an increase in mental health problems among their staff (51% compared with 32% who are not planning redundancies).
For manual workers, stress is now level with acute medical conditions and has overtaken musculoskeletal problems to become the top cause of long-term absence. Among non-manual staff, stress has moved ahead of acute medical conditions.
There is a particular increase in stress-related absence among public sector organisations, with half of those surveyed reporting an increase. Public sector respondents identify the amount of organisational change and restructuring as the number one cause of stress at work, ‘highlighting the impact of public sector cuts to jobs, pension benefits and pay freezes’. Job insecurity is also reported as a more common cause of work-related stress in the public sector this year (24%) compared with last year (10%) and is higher than in the private (14%) and non-profit sectors (14%).
Unsurprisingly, says the survey, given the significant budget cuts, more than two-fifths (43%) of public sector organisations report they will be making redundancies over the next 6 months (compared with 17% in the private sector and 24% of non-profits).
Overall employee absence levels have remained static at 7.7 days per employee per year. Public sector absence has decreased from 9.6 days per employee per year last year to 9.1 days this year and private sector absence has increased from 6.6 days in 2010 to 7.1 days in this year’s survey. The trends in absence levels appear to reflect the relative fortunes of these sectors. Although overall absence levels show little change, the proportion of absence that is stress-related has increased. Nearly four in ten (39%) employers report an increase in stress-related absence, compared to just 12% reporting a decrease.
Among the other findings are the following:
- The median cost of absence has increased compared with last year (£673 per employee per year compared with £600 in 2010). The public and non-profit sectors report higher costs of absence per employee than the private sector. The median annual cost per employee in the public sector is £800 and in the non-profit sector it is £743 compared with £446 in private services and £444 in the production and manufacturing sector.
- Absence levels are lowest among manufacturing and production organisations at 5.7 days per employee per year (6.9 days in 2010) while among non-profit organisations absence has increased to 8.8 days (8.3 days in 2010).
- Over a quarter (28%) of employers report an increase in the number of people coming to work ill in the last 12 months.
- Organisations that were expecting redundancies in the coming 6 months were more likely to report an increase in presenteeism (32% compared with 27% of those who were not expecting to make further redundancies). They were also less likely to report they had not noticed an increase (48% compared with 66%) and less certain (20% report they didn’t know if there had been an increase compared with 7% of those not making redundancies).
- Organisations that had noted an increase in presenteeism over the past year were more likely to report an increase in stress-related absence over the same period (49% compared to 33% of those who did not report an increase in people coming to work ill).
- Over a quarter of organisations (29%) report they have increased their focus on employee wellbeing and health promotion as a result of the economic context. Over two-fifths of the public sector report an increase in focus compared with just over one-fifth of the private sector.
Additional resources
- ‘Absence levels persistently higher in the public sector’ – 2010 CIPD survey
- Model clause dealing with suspension of company sick pay and 'stress'
Subscribers only - 
