Sickness Absence Trends in a Retail Company in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Sickness Absence is a major problem faced by almost all employers and society, and it was estimated that 137.7 million working days were lost just in the UK due to sickness or injury. This work presents a study on the determinants of sickness absence in order to evidence the global overtime needs of a British retail company. As a result, it has been selected, and statistic explored individual, demographic and work factors, such as gender, age, nationality, region, work unit type, role, contracted hours, length of service and the ill health's causes taking into consideration the evaluation of the trends in 2016 and 2017. It was verified that the sickness absence rate is above the national UK average, varies seasonally according to the sales, focusing on the female, older and national population. Anxiety, depression, stress and musculoskeletal disorders are the predominant causes of absence. Therefore, it is essential for the creation of effective internal absenteeism management policies capable of maintaining and improving the occupational management system. It is critical a complementary analyse of psychosocial determinants, in order to understand the decision making of the absence and to achieve the reduction of occupational diseases such as anxiety, depression and stress and musculoskeletal disorders, to ensuring the wellbeing of all employees.