Free information – Determining the impact of sickness absence

Aon Consulting has launched a free index for employers, which provides information relating to the impact of employee illness on their organisation.

The employee risk and benefits management firm believes its European Sick Leave Index (ESLI) to be the largest and first of its kind produced in Europe. It is based on data gathered from almost 200 French, Belgian, German and Dutch employers with 370,000 employees across all key sectors.
 
Aon says the ESLI builds on the traditional approach to measuring sickness and absence of recording the number of sick days taken by employees by also taking into account the impact on productivity of sickness. For example, it compares the effect of one employee being ill for 200 consecutive days to 20 being absent for 10 days scattered throughout the year.
 
Based on the information collected by the ESLI:

• The 370,000 employees currently tracked took approximately 4.2 million sick days over the last year;
• The total direct cost of these sick days to the 200 employers was €665 million;
• On average, each sick day in this sample costs employers almost €160.

Peter Abelskamp, director of health and benefits EMEA at Aon Consulting, commented: “The ESLI adds depth to companies’ understanding of the impact of sick leave, how it affects their ability to serve their customers, and add value for their shareholders. Most importantly, it helps identify what they can do to optimise performance in this area and promote employee wellness within their organisation.
 
“Better understanding of variables such as the duration, frequency and prevalence of sick leave incidents and their impact on productivity will be a valuable aid to human resources management, risk management and corporate planning, particularly during these economically uncertain times.”

Aon believes the index will be a great help to users in making the business case for health and safety interventions, as it will enable the direct financial benefits of any initiatives to be measured.
 
Although the index currently focuses on the four countries mentioned, the company says employers from any country can benchmark against the Index. Abelskamp explained: “Despite big differences in social legislation, the end result on exposure to absence from work is remarkably similar in the countries benchmarked. However, interesting distinctions exist in the makeup of the absences. For example, in France the average duration of each sick-leave ‘event’ is above average, which is compensated by a lower number of ‘events’, whereas in Germany, it is the exact opposite.”

The ESLI can be accessed on the Aon website here.