Benchmarking absence rates and costs: Absences cost £500 per employee per year
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The median cost of absence to UK employers is £500 per employee per year, according to 2010 benchmarking research from IRS for XpertHR. The IRS/XpertHR Benchmarking survey on absence is based on responses from 256 employers with a combined workforce of more than 700,000 employees. In addition to detailed analysis of absence costs, the survey provides extensive benchmarking data on absence rates for the 2009 calendar year. |
Subscribers to XpertHR Benchmarking can drill down into the complete benchmarking data from the 2010 survey of absence rates and costs.
Click on the links to access full benchmarking data on each of the following key findings, then apply filters where necessary to view data by sector, organisation size, and/or region:
- The median cost of absence to employers was £500 per employee in 2009.
- By broad industry sector, the cost of absence was significantly higher in the public sector than in the private sector.
- The median absence rate was 3% of working time in 2009, equivalent to 6.8 working days' absence per employee. These rates are marginally lower than those recorded for 2008.
- The public sector median absence rate was 3.8% of working time in 2009. This was more than 50% higher than those in the private sector.
- By UK region, the median 2009 absence rate was lowest in London (2.3% of working time) and highest in Northern Ireland (5.5%).
- Larger employers have higher absence rates: the median 2009 absence rate for small organisations was 2.3% of working time, compared with 3.9% at the biggest organisations.
- More than a quarter of employers feel the recession affected absence levels in 2009.
I hope these links will help you get the most out of the benchmarking data from this survey. Please get in touch if you have any queries about the XpertHR Benchmarking service.
Michael Carty, Benchmarking Editor
