Fact Service October 2011

Issue 40

Stress now main cause of sickness absence

Stress is, for the first time, the most common cause of long-term sickness absence for both manual and non-manual employees, according to this year’s Absence Management survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Simplyhealth.

There is a particular increase in stress-related absence among public sector organisations, with 50% of these respondents reporting an increase. Organisational change and restructuring is cited as the number one cause of stress at work, highlighting the impact of public sector cuts to jobs, pension benefits and pay freezes.

Job insecurity is also reported as a more common cause of work-related stress in the public sector this year (24%) compared with last year (10%) and is higher than in the private (14%) and non-profit sectors (14%).

www.simplyhealth.co.uk/shcore/sh/content/pdfs/surveys/CIPD_2011_Absence_Managemen1.pdf