UK companies are losing an average of £1 million a year to staff absences that could be tackled with flexible working, research has found.
The rate of sickness and other absences at large businesses could be significantly reduced if they offered more flexible working patterns for staff who do not work from home such as nurses, builders and supermarket check-out staff. This is according to economic modelling by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) think tank for Timewise, the flexible working consultancy.
The think tank analysed the rate of absenteeism and sickness at companies that employed more than 1,000 workers in five sectors: nursing, teaching, construction, retail and social care. The sectors represent eight million workers.
About 95 per cent of the workers in
