Healthy Business

Presenteeism and its effects: the need for a healthy workforce

Most of us have probably – at one time or another – struggled in to work when feeling slightly unwell. The illness we’re suffering from could be something minor such as a head cold, but in some cases people will make it into work even if they’re putting their own health (and productivity) at risk.

The word presenteeism is often used to describe the problem of people turning up to work while they’re ill. So, when employees present themselves for work rather than taking sickness absence, could it actually be detrimental for these workers and their organisation as a whole?

According to The Sainsbury Centre For Mental health, ‘Presenteeism accounts for 1.5 times as much working time lost as absenteeism and costs more to employers because it is more common among higher-paid staff’. However, as a 2010 study into sickness presence by The Work Foundation and AXA PPP states, not all workers with health problems will perceive themselves as being “sickness present” if their ill health doesn’t affect their ability to work.

So, why do people soldier on, even when they should be at home resting up? The report gives outlines some key reasons:

• Type and severity of illness
• Feeling under pressure from managers or the rest of the team
• Self pressure – workers who hold high standards for themselves
• Having no-one to cover workload when off sick
• Feeling under stress at work
• Being unable to rest at home due to family arrangements
• Concern about commission and pay
• Ability to adjust work e.g. a flexible working environment allowing for lighter tasks to be taken on when unwell.

In a recent HR Magazine article, Professor Gary Cooper of Lancaster University discusses the subject –under the plain-speaking headline Presenteeism is more costly than absenteeism> He argues that one of the main factors causing presenteeism is job insecurity, with people coming to work unwell and as a result providing ‘very little added value’.

And the ways to combat presenteeism? As Professor Cooper says, business needs to ‘overcome [workers’] fears of job insecurity’. There are several things business can do to help reduce these fears and presenteeism levels with them: communicating management expectations, offering employee assistance programmes and allaying staff fears through counselling, plus encouraging those who are ill to seek medical advice. These could all be ways to start a campaign against presenteeism.

Speaking in Personnel Today magazine, Chief executive of Alliance Boots’ Health & Beauty Division, Alex Gourlay, sums up the challenge for organisations in taking a wider view: “The cost of absenteeism is a relatively easy one for the business to focus on. But there is a bigger prize underneath”. How big that prize actually is, and how soon businesses will find it remains to be seen. Until then, the workplace could continue to see people in ill-health at their desks!