How to promote employees’ health and cut workplace sickness levels

The UK is facing a quiet but profound workforce crisis. Long-term sickness among working-age adults is at its highest recorded level, and employers are increasingly grappling with the financial and operational strain of extended absences.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), about 2.8 million people in the UK are currently classified as long-term sick, a figure that has risen by roughly one-third since the COVID-19 pandemic.

But what is driving this surge, and what can employers do to prevent staff from reaching the point where they feel unable to work at all?

Read more: Key skills to keep your job in the AI era

Speaking to Yahoo Finance Future Focus, Anthony Sly, lead medical services consultant at MetLife UK, says the trend reflects a complex mix of improved awareness of health issues, especially mental health, and a simultaneous difficulty in accessing timely treatment.

“There is much more awareness about conditions moving forward, particularly from a mental health perspective, where cases have risen quite considerably,” Sly said.

“But in some areas, there is a lack of accessibility into treatment, which then creates a vicious circle. If you don’t access treatment, you have the potential of deteriorating until you can.”

Young workers hit hardest

The pandemic did not affect all workers equally. Younger employees, many of whom were locked down during formative social and educational years, appear to be disproportionately represented in the surge of psychological and stress-related illness.

“There is certainly a rise in young people with mental health disorders and also being off on long-term absence,” Sly said. “In part, that is due to lockdown and not having social interaction. But it also relates to greater awareness of mental health issues and, importantly, delays or difficulty in accessing support.”

Read more: IBM head of research on how quantum computing will change businesses

Research also shows that the longer someone remains out of work due to illness, the harder it is for them to return. After six months, the likelihood of a successful, sustained return to work falls to less than 50%. This is why early action, Sly argues, is essential.

The case for early intervention

MetLife UK has been advocating for what it describes as early intervention,recognising and addressing health issues before they lead to extended absences.

This approach includes:

Vocational rehabilitation support to help employees adjust or adapt their workload Workplace or home adjustments to reduce strain or stressors Faster access to treatment, including mental health support Health and lifestyle support to reduce the likelihood of chronic illness developing

Story Continues

“If you can deal with these things at a much earlier stage, then there’s less chance of someone developing an illness that leads to absence,” Sly says.

Many employers aren’t tracking the issue

One of the biggest challenges, Sly said, is that many businesses do not even monitor sickness absence, let alone its causes.

“Around 16% of companies don’t monitor sickness absence at all,” he said. “If you don’t look at it, how do you know what’s affecting your employees? How do you know if you have good health and wellbeing?”

This lack of visibility means employers often don’t see problems until it’s too late, and the employee is already off work long-term.

Read more: Did the Genius Act just kill the UK’s crypto dreams?

The pandemic accelerated hybrid and remote working, blurring boundaries between personal and professional life. Some employees now experience an "always on" culture where emails, messaging apps and work notifications constantly follow the worker.

This makes employer-led preventative health support more important than ever. Sly argues that the industry needs to shift away from thinking of income protection simply as a financial safety net, and instead view it as a proactive health management tool.

“It’s really flipping the idea of what income protection does,” he says. “It’s not just that financial product. It is more about early intervention and prevention becoming the hero of the story.”

Read more:

Why pension funds are buying bitcoin What is a spot bitcoin ETF and why has it sparked a crypto rally? How AI could change the internet

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.

View Comments