Finance companies failing to address sickness absence

Nearly half of all companies within the financial sector do not have a strategy in place to reduce sickness absence, despite the fact that nearly 50% of employees have 6 or more days off sick each year.

This is just one of the many findings from the latest annual healthcare research conducted by Employee Benefits magazine and sponsored by Healthplan provider HSA. The Employee Benefits/ HSA Healthcare Research 2007, released this month, is in its fifth year, and looks at key trends for health in the workplace across a range of industries.

Abby Bowman, Communications Manager at HSA, explains, “On top of not having a strategy with regards to absence, many financial services companies are not putting benefits in place to help stem absence. This year’s results show that 85% of employers don’t pay for their employees to have a health cash plan. Health cash plans offer a variety of healthcare benefits that can help employees return to work more quickly and give employees money back towards everyday healthcare costs which can help to promote health and wellbeing. This is a priority for 61% of financial services companies when investing in a health benefit.”

Amanda Wilkinson, Editor of Employee Benefits, says, “Those finance companies that do not have a strategy in place to reduce sickness are missing a trick. Sickness absence costs businesses huge sums of money each year in the form of lost productivity.”

Additional key findings from the research includes:

33% of absence within the financial sector is due to musculoskeletal problems

Only 39% of financial services companies record the cost of sickness absence to the company

74% of employers within the financial sector believe it is the Government’s responsibility to improve health and wellbeing