The HR Leadership Series: Absenteeism and Presenteeism

In pure financial terms, the issue of absenteeism costs more than twice to the UK economy than its membership of the European Union. While the debate on Brexit is understandable – and clearly important – the fact is that absenteeism is a huge issue and one that merits greater focus.

The scale of the cost implications from absenteeism – both for the wider economy and for individual businesses – are discussed in the first video of our HR Leadership Series.

In our first episode, Absenteeism and Presenteeism, AdviserPlus CEO Nick Bradley and Lancaster University academic Dr Anthony Hesketh discuss the savings that could be made by tackling the underlying issues that cause absenteeism.

Dr Hesketh, a specialist in HR matters, said that absenteeism costs the UK about £20 billion a year, adding: “Given all the hysteria around the EU currently, the net payment that the UK makes to the EU each year is £8.1 billion. That puts the £20 billion around absenteeism into perspective.”

Nick Bradley also speaks about the fact that issues with absence quite often stem from poor leadership. He also discusses the fact that tweaks to working practices that reduce absence levels can make a huge financial difference.

He said: “For one particular client we are working with, the absenteeism rate for them per year was £35 million. Even a couple of small interventions can get that down to half that.”

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