Rachel Suff, Senior Policy Adviser at the CIPD, uses recent data from the CIPD’s Health and wellbeing at work survey report, supported by Simplyhealth to offer recommendations for organisations and UK Government policymakers to help reduce record-high employee absence.
The average sickness absence rate soared to a record high of 9.4 days per employee per year according to the recent survey report Health and wellbeing at work, published by CIPD and supported by Simplyhealth. This is the highest level in at least 15 years, up from 5.8 days before the pandemic and 7.8 days recorded in the 2023 report.
Minor illness remains the most common cause of short-term absence. However, psychological ill health, encompassing poor mental health and stress, features strongly as a cause of both short- and long-term absence. For example, mental ill health is by far the top cause of long-term absence (41% of organisations citing it in their top three causes) and also the second main cause of short-term absence. Meanwhile, musculoskeletal injuries are also a major cause of sickness absence, particularly in the case of long-term absence (31%).
The report provides important data about the immediate causes of sickness absence but the data also raises deeper questions. Crucially, are employees less healthy, or do organisations need to support people’s health and manage absence more effectively? The short answer is ‘yes’ to both questions, but there are many factors at play.
It’s important to look at the wider context affecting health and work. Many people are living and working longer which means they are more likely to develop chronic health conditions or disabilities in employment. Concern about falling levels of economic participation in the UK and the contributory factor of ill health and long-term sickness absence prompted the government’s Keep Britain Working review.
The review’s Discovery phase report notes ‘a surge in the number of people with work-limiting health conditions between 2015 and 2024.’ In 2023, more than eight million people aged 16–64 reported a long-term health condition that affects their ability to work, although most people are still working with a health condition. Many people have multiple health conditions and this can impact sickness absence rates. Pathways to diagnosis and treatment can be drawn out given the typically long waiting lists in many cases, which can also affect people’s interaction with work.
To avoid high levels of sickness absence employers should aim to understand and reduce the main risks to people’s health in their own workforce. They also need to ensure that work doesn’t exacerbate employees’ ill health and provide effective support and reasonable adjustments to help them remain in work. And yet around a quarter of employees in the CIPD Good Work Index 2025 say that work has a negative impact on both their mental and physical health.
There will be occasions where some individuals living with an ongoing health condition need to take time off work. But how effectively organisations, particularly managers, keep in touch with absent employees and manage a sustainable return to work will have a direct impact on the length of sickness absence and on many people’s ability to remain in work.
There is a positive dimension to the 2025 survey report as it shows that most organisations (75%) are taking some action to improve employee health and wellbeing.
Over the last few years, our research has shown a gradual increase in the proportion of organisations with a standalone wellbeing strategy, now standing at 57% compared with 44% in 2020. The percentage reporting that line managers are bought into the importance of wellbeing has also continued to rise (75%, up from 58% five years ago) and more believe that senior leaders have employee wellbeing on their agenda (74% versus 61% in 2020).
Despite these improvements, over a third (37%) still report that their organisation is much more reactive (taking action when people have gone off sick) than proactive in their approach to wellbeing.
Our research shows organisations need to adopt more systematic, risk- and evidence-based interventions to improve health and employment outcomes. As we set out in the CIPD’s response to the Keep Britain Working Review, many organisations still tend to take a reactive approach to health, rather than a pre-emptive one that addresses the main health risks and supports people with ongoing health condition or disabilities and helps to prevent poor health where possible.
Compared to some countries (eg the Netherlands and Denmark), the UK’s workplace health infrastructure is underdeveloped. The final report of the Commission for Healthier Working Lives (of which CIPD served on its advisory group) rightly points out that the current system ‘does too little, too late’ to prevent health-related job loss. Improving employment rates for people with health conditions will require long-term investment in early intervention and practical support.
Historically, UK public policy reform to close the disability employment gap and improve employment outcomes for those with health conditions has focused too heavily on supply-side interventions. We need adequately resourced government systems, regulation, employment services and guidance to boost employer demand to recruit, retain and progress disabled people, as well as direct support for individuals. We also need more focus on work as a clinical outcome as part of health-related conversations.
Key areas for policy reform include:
• Boost people management capability in small firms: many HR interventions are key to effective occupational health support for workers such as absence management policies, return to work interviews and reasonable adjustments. Consequently, there is a need to improve the quality of business support to small firms on HR and people management at a local level delivered via key stakeholders such as Local Enterprise Partnerships and Growth Hubs and through providing additional resources to Acas.
• Widen access to occupational advice, particularly for SMEs: develop locally delivered access to occupational health (OH) provision, which is free or subsidised for SMEs.
• Implement a workplace women’s and reproductive health strategy: we welcome the government’s plans in this area, including the appointment of a Menopause Employment Ambassador and advisory group (of which the CIPD is a member). However, CIPD research on menopause transition shows that employers are still losing around one in six employees due to a lack of support.
• More effective enforcement action: we welcome the planned establishment of the Fair Work Agency (FWA), including the new remit to enforce the payment of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). However, the FWA will not include the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which play a major role in protecting people’s rights relating to health and disability. Both bodies need more adequate resources to fulfil their regulatory duties and carry out more proactive enforcement activities. For example, as the CIPD Health and wellbeing at work survey, supported by Simplyhealth, clearly shows, some of the main risks to people’s health are psychological (latest HSE statistics show stress, anxiety and depression account for 46% of new and long-standing cases of work-related ill health 2023/24), and the HSE needs additional funding to encourage more employers to meet their existing legal duty to prevent and manage stress at work.
• Optimise Government schemes such as Disability Confident and Access to Work and launch a well-resourced workplace health publicity and education campaign: there needs to be much greater promotion of available support and schemes like Disability Confident and Access to Work by the government as part of a well-funded national campaign, to help boost employer confidence and capability in recruiting, managing and retaining disabled people and those with health conditions.
• Explore a more structured approach to return-to-work: the worrying increase in economic inactivity due to long-term sickness raises the question of whether we need stronger regulation to encourage more supportive action by employers to maintain contact with people when off sick and put in place effective steps to facilitate a sustainable return-to-work.
Rachel Suff joined the CIPD as a policy adviser in 2014 to increase the CIPD’s public policy profile and engage with politicians, civil servants, policy-makers and commentators to champion better work and working lives. An important part of her role is to ensure that the views of the profession inform CIPD policy thinking on issues such as health and wellbeing, employee engagement and employment relations. As well as conducting research on UK employment issues, she helps guide the CIPD’s thinking in relation to European developments affecting the world of work. Rachel’s prior roles include working as a researcher for XpertHR and as a senior policy adviser at Acas.
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