HR Industry News

Businesses urged to tackle sicknote culture

— 26 October 2007 —

Companies have been warned to tackle the sicknote culture in Britain after research showed that 4 in 5 employees fake ‘sickies’ on a regular basis.

Research from recruitment website fish4jobs shows that October and November are the main months for taking sick days, as it marks the longest period in the calendar without a bank holiday.

Over a third of those surveyed revealed that they had taken sickies to recover from the previous night in the pub, while 17% have skipped work for a legitimate reason – a doctor’s appointment.

Some of the more extravagant reasons given for “pulling a sickie” include having caught a foreign disease on holiday, lying about a death in the family and pretending a pet has died.

Joe Slavin, CEO of fish4jobs added, “We all know Brits work the longest hours in Europe and it’s clear from the survey that workers are resorting to pulling a sickie for all sorts of reasons. Employers need to take serious note and look for ways of tackling the Sicknote Culture that’s sweeping the UK.”

Tactics such as allowing a ‘duvet day’, encouraging a job share scheme or installing more ‘working from home’ time are all strategies that more UK employers need to adopt in order to help provide employees with a valid reason to take a last minute day off that is strictly by the book.Joe Slavin, CEO of Fish4jobs

Paul Avis of Ceridian Lifeworks says, “To avoid absence indifference or the more malicious entitlement mentality, employers need clear rules, patterns and triggers e.g. 4 occasions, 10 days 2 occasions, 3 week-ends or 3 repeat same absence causes all in a rolling 12 months, to put a line in the sand and pull employees up on their attendance.

"Most employers and employees I talk to do not like or understand the Bradford Factor, so this is possibly one benchmark to be avoided. At one employer, 24% of the absence was caused by 4% of employees. I call such people RHINOs - represented here in name only and adding no value to the business. Such triggers really go beyond absence management into cultural dimensions and even organisational design.”

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