Measuring and Monitoring Absence from Work

Over 170 million working days are lost to British industry through sickness absence, costing employers an estimated £11 billion.

Research shows that improvements in employee attendance can be achieved through a combination of senior management commitment, clear responsibilities, appropriate information, trained line managers, and attention to staff welfare.

This report is concerned with the third of these success factors: the provision of accurate, timely and accessible information. It explains how to calculate, and when to use, a wide variety of absence measures.

It considers information presentation; use of trigger points; analysis of time series and morbidity data; benchmarking; and costing absence. The report concludes with a discussion on the use of absence data to manage attendance.

Read the full report summary