Employers’ attempts to tackle wellbeing are failing to reduce presenteeism – Canada Life Group Insurance

Nearly a quarter of UK workers (23%) say they would not take a day off sick unless they were hospitalised or had no other choice, according to research by insurer Canada Life Group Insurance. Nine in ten have gone in to work feeling ill, a proportion that has not changed in the last couple of years, suggesting that employers’ attempts to tackle wellbeing are failing to reduce presenteeism.

• Almost half of respondents to the insurer’s survey would go into work with a stomach bug and more than half (55%) would attend if they had ‘flu.
• Not surprisingly, 48% of workers say they have become unwell due to a colleague’s illness on more than one occasion.
• A third of workers responded that high workloads have forced them to go into work when unwell and 22% that they were motivated to go in by financial concerns.
• However, the most commonly cited reason for attending work sick was that the employee did not think that the illness was sufficiently serious to warrant a day off.

Paul Avis, marketing director at Canada Life Group Insurance, said:

‘Employers must do more to show they are serious about supporting employee health. This includes tapping into the quality support available from insurers. Early intervention services are available alongside group income protection products and include proactive absence management interventions to facilitate a return to work; but only when employees are fit and able to do so.’

For more information, please visit: www.canadalife.co.uk/group/Default.asp