According to the latest research from Total Jobs that came out in October 2024, there has been a 41% increase in sickness absence levels over the last three years.
39% of employees say working for their employer has undermined their health or made them sick.
Whilst 59% of HR leaders surveyed claimed that the increase was due to a deterioration of workplace culture and high levels of employee dissatisfaction.
Organisations often fail to associate high levels of sickness absence with their workplace culture, but the truth is, culture is intrinsically linked to employee health and wellbeing.
The link between workplace culture and sickness absence
Workplace cultures have a big impact on how employees feel and their attitude to work. According to a recent CIPD poll, 1 in 2 employees would call in sick to avoid a negative workplace. When employees are experiencing unsustainable workloads, high levels of stress, unsupportive managers, bullying from colleagues and other types of unwanted behaviour that goes unchecked, it has a detrimental impact on people’s health and well-being.
It should come as no surprise that people who are working in a toxic culture, experience high levels of stress, poor mental and physical health, and are unlikely to be performing at their best.
The Total Jobs survey found that 55% of workplaces experienced a decline in employee performance due to sickness absence. Workplace culture has a direct link to productivity, when people are working in a supportive environment where their opinions are respected, their workload is manageable and they have good relationships with their colleagues, they’re more likely to be happier at work, healthier and therefore more productive.
Why is sickness absence and poor culture such a problem for UK businesses?
Poor culture and high levels of sickness absence is a serious problem for business – it’s currently costing UK businesses an average of £100 billion each year and it can be a real challenge to break the cycle.
When sickness absence levels rise, it’s often employees who remain in the business that take on increasing workloads to cover colleague’s work, which contributes to higher levels of stress, and poor health and wellbeing.
Not only is there a huge cost associated with sickness absence, but it can also damage your culture too. Trust breaks down between colleagues and managers because workloads haven’t been managed properly, colleagues who are picking up the slack may feel resentful, and can’t rely on each other, causing hostile working environments and incivility.
If temporary workers are brought in to cover those on sick leave, it may relieve the pressure on your employees, but it can change the team dynamic. Unfortunately, temp workers aren’t always treated like part of the team, they’re often considered a short-term solution, which can lead to an ‘us vs. them’ mentality, contributing to hostility and a negative work environment. When managers fail to call this type of bad behaviour out, regardless of whether they’re a full time or temporary employee, it signals to others that the behaviour is tolerated and that there are no consequences for bullying or harassment, creating an unpleasant place to work.
Three ways to improve your culture to reduce sickness absence levels
Assess your culture
Organisations experiencing high levels of sickness absence firstly need to address any underlying factors. To do this, leaders should take a step back and conduct a culture review to fully understand what’s really happening in their organisation.
Firstly, review your absence data and look for any trends. Are there multiple employees in the same team off sick? Are there certain periods with more people absent than usual? This should raise concerns and could signal an underlying cultural issue.
Next you should analyse your culture. Are employees actively engaged? Is there a culture of blame, where employees are afraid to speak up? What about unwanted behaviour, are people experiencing bullying and harassment that’s not being dealt with properly? You can also gain information about your culture challenges through employee experience surveys. Providing your employees with a survey which they can complete during their work hours and submit anonymously can help you to get honest feedback from employees about the challenges within your working culture.
Once you’ve gathered all the data and fully understand the underlying factors which are contributing to sickness absence, only then can you begin to put measures in place to improve your culture and create an environment where people are healthy, engaged and productive.
As culture experts, with over a decade of experience helping organisations just like yours improve their workplaces, we can help you review your culture, overcome barriers to change and help you refine your culture management strategy.
We offer a non-judgmental approach to support you to better understand your culture and how you can take steps to improve it.
Shift the blame culture and facilitate better working relationships
If there’s a culture of blame in your organisation, where employees feel under pressure to get things right the first time, are unable to make mistakes and are scared to speak up, it’s likely they won’t trust their manager enough to tell them when they’re struggling or that they are unwell. This can lead to presenteeism and longer-term health and wellbeing issues.
Likewise, if relationships between colleagues break down and employees are experiencing bullying or harassment, but don’t feel comfortable reporting it because of the relationship with their manager (or any number of other reasons), this type of behaviour can have a lasting impact on employee’s health and mental wellbeing, contributing to sickness absence and lack of engagement.
When you facilitate better working relationships between both managers and colleagues, building a supportive culture where employees feel safe to speak up without being blamed for their actions and are comfortable seeking support from their manager, you’re more likely to catch health concerns early, nip unwanted behaviour in the bud and put preventative measures in place.
To build psychological safety at work and reduce sickness absence levels, you need to build trust between leadership and employees, promoting accountability. Providing employees with an anonymous reporting channel can encourage them to speak up without fear of the consequences. It gives you access to more data, giving you a bigger picture of the culture in your organisation and a better understanding of culture damaging behaviours that are contributing to sickness absence levels.
Learn more about our anonymous reporting platform >
In addition to providing your employees with a means to speak up about culture-damaging behaviours, our reporting platform can support you to effectively signpost your employees who are experiencing poor wellbeing to relevant support services such as your EAP (Employee Assistance Programme), internal mental health first aiders or external support services where they access help and support. It is an excellent way for you to better support your employees in their wellbeing as an employer with a duty of care.
Role of senior leaders and managers
Lastly, workplace culture is driven from the top and leaders need to take responsibility for the culture in their business, reinforcing a culture where employees feel empowered to speak up. It’s great for leaders to have strong values but it needs to be communicated and cascaded down through the whole organisation.
That’s why middle managers play a crucial role in shaping your culture, in fact 35% of employees see a supportive manager as the next most important thing for their health at work, after work life balance. Upskilling your managers with soft skills such as empathy and communication can help build trust and relationships with teams, making it easier for managers to spot signs of sickness or unwanted behaviour early on.
When managers are bought into your cultural vision and prioritise solutions rather than blame, they build better relationships with employees, increasing levels of trust and psychological safety to empower employees to speak up, whether that’s admitting they are unwell through to reporting wrongdoing or culture damaging behaviour that makes them not want to come to work.
Prioritising the health of your employees and building a culture of psychological safety is essential to productivity and the long-term success of your organisation. It benefits everyone to create a workplace with a positive culture where employees are healthy and can thrive in their roles.
Book a free demo to find out Culture Shift’s culture platform can help you reduce sickness absence levels by hearing your people when it matters the most.
Sources
Total Jobs report:
