New poll shows majority of business owners unaware of employee sickness costs

Two-thirds of businesses across the UK have no idea how much employee sickness costs their business – that was the shocking statistic from our latest webinar – Why sickness management must be your #1 HR priority – held on Thursday (18 June).

The event was held in conjunction with global absence management software specialist E-days. Attendees to the webinar were polled, with results also showing that over half don’t have any tech in place to tackle the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alex Griffiths, sales director at E-days, said the results weren’t so much of a shock, in his experience.

He said: “We’re finding that more and more businesses which has previously gone years without mentioning the cost of absence at board meetings – the subject is now starting to get tabled. They’re thinking: ‘How much of this is happening; what’s the impact of it; and what do we need to do about it?'”

Steve Arnold, CEO of E-days, added: “When companies are still using manual methods for their absence management, they won’t know. If you have an absence management system, then things will be very easy to keep control of. When they’re assessing who is going to come back to work, it’s good to know who has had Covid-19; who has self-isolated and who hasn’t; who has displayed symptoms of Covid-19 – to make sure those people are staying away from the office instead of trying to get people back to the office as quickly as possible.

“HR departments need to think very carefully about who can come back to work and when. I think things are changing and these poll numbers will change in a year’s time as business realise that they need to look after their people better.”

To view the full webinar, click here.

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