Member Article

One in three Yorkshire & Humber workers admits to having pulled a sickie

One in three workers (32%) in Yorkshire & Humberside admits to having pulled a ‘sickie’ according to new research by PwC.

Among the most popular reasons for why people pulled a ‘sickie’ in the region are having a hangover (25%), family responsibilities (30%), interview for another job (27%), bored at work (27%) and watching a sporting event (9%).

Illness is by far the most common reason given with 69% in the region using it as an excuse.

PwC’s research shows that sick days are costing organisations in the UK over £23bn a year, but a large proportion of the sick bill is preventable as people lying or exaggerating to take time off work is costing £9bn a year.

Rupert Hutton, director in PwC’s human resource services team in Yorkshire, said: “The combination of better weather and major sporting events may mean that the temptation to lie to take time off work to watch sport is too much for some.

“Organisations could easily reduce the knock-on impact on their workers’ productivity levels by offering flexible working or allowing them to watch key matches in the office.

“Our research shows that when it comes to reducing absence levels, carrot rather than stick is the best approach. Having a flexible working culture can go a long way to breaking the cycle of people feeling that they are entitled to days off outside of their holiday allowance and encouraging better engagement.

“The change in law that means anyone now has the right to request flexible working should help more people achieve the work/life balance they need without impacting on organisations’ productivity.”

In Yorkshire & Humberside, most people (20%) said a flexible working approach is the measure that would most likely put them off from pulling a ‘sickie’, with 8% saying schemes such as health and wellbeing initiatives, would put them off pulling a sickie. .

PwC analysis of over 2,500 global companies shows that the UK’s overall sickness bill (including genuine and made-up illness) has fallen to £23 billion from £29 billion a year ago.

But despite this positive trend, UK workers still take nearly triple the amount of sick days as their global counterparts in Asia Pacific (4.8 days) and nearly double the US (3.8 days).

Central and Eastern Europe has the highest level of sick days at an average of 8.3 a year. Sick days still account for the majority of absence and make up 87% of the overall absence bill to organisations in the UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .