UK employers recognise their role in tackling long-term sickness absence

As the number of people economically inactive due to long term sickness reaches 2.8m^[1], Aviva’s new return to work research^[2] confirms that employers recognise that they are key to the UK’s bid to address this challenge. 

Over four fifths of employers (82%) agreed^[3] that they play an important role in helping employees return to work after ill-health – with nearly three quarters (74%) of employers feeling^[3] that their organisation is good at supporting employees back into the workplace.

The findings are timely. The Government has launched its “Keep Britain Working” review, an independent review into the role of UK employers in promoting healthy and inclusive workplaces. Aviva’s research confirms that employers would welcome guidance and support to help them better manage their employees’ return to work after ill-health. 

Nearly half of employers wanted more guidance on how to access best practice services (45%), such as occupational health, vocational rehabilitation support and wellbeing services to help prevent ill-health.  The same amount of employers wanted more help in making these services affordable through incentives or tax concessions. A similar number of employers (43%) felt that Government should have a greater focus on public health and support people to live healthy lives. 

For many employers, this support can’t come soon enough. While most medium and large employers taking part in the survey have defined processes to assess and address an employee’s return to work, Aviva’s research reveals a significant gap in the support available from micro-SMEs which account for around 95% of the UK's businesses.^[4]

Over half of businesses employing 1-9 employees said that they don’t have any return-to-work processes in place (51%) and three quarters of employers from organisations of this size said that they don’t have any vocational rehabilitation or occupational health support. In comparison, one in twenty (5%) employers with over 100 employees said that they don’t have any set procedures in place or support services. 

Over half (53%) of companies with 100 or more employees offer occupational health support and over a quarter (26%) offer vocational rehabilitation assistance to employees returning to work following long-term sickness absence. Significantly fewer micro-SMEs offer early intervention support such as occupational health (5%) and vocational rehabilitation (5%).

Larger organisations are also more likely to offer wellbeing benefits (45%), private healthcare (38%), employee support groups (38%) and digital GP service (26%). 

Despite some positive progress, the stark reality is that the number of employees who aren’t fully fit for work is on the increase. 

The Health Foundation project found that by 2040 over 9.1 million people in England will be living with major illness – around one in five of the adult population. Much of the projected growth in illness relates to conditions such as anxiety and depression, chronic pain and diabetes – reinforcing the need to establish a best practice approach to vocational rehabilitation, that aids early intervention and offers ongoing support for employees’ health and wellbeing.^[5]

Encouragingly, nearly two thirds (63%) of employers agreed^[3] that it’s important to get people back to work as quickly as possible following ill-health and over a third (36%) say that they offer wellbeing support to help encourage their employees to lead a healthy lifestyle.  

Jason Ellis, Aviva’s Sales and Distribution Director for Group Protection said: “The UK is seeing more and more people leave the workforce due to ill-health, and this trend is likely to continue. Employers play a crucial role in addressing this issue, so it's reassuring to see many companies have processes and support systems in place to help employees return to work and stay there after experiencing health problems.

“However, our research shows a significant variation in the level of support different organisations offer. This highlights the need for the introduction of best-practice guidelines and better education and access to return-to-work support for both employers and employees.

“It's essential that employers intervene early and that an employee's return to work is carefully managed. Expectations should be agreed upon and clearly communicated from the start, with progress checked and adjustments made as the employee's circumstances change. Without a clear, transparent strategy, there's a risk the employee might have an unnecessary extension of absence.”

-ends-

References:

_{¹ The Resolution Foundation. Britain has a bigger, but sicker, workforce than previously thought • Resolution Foundation}

_{² The research was conducted by Censuswide with 504 UK Employers between 10.10.2024 - 15.10.2024. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.} 

_{³ “Fully confident” and “Somewhat confident” combined/ “Strongly agree” and “Somewhat agree” combined}

_{⁴ Business statistics - researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk}

_{researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06152/SN06152.pdf}

_{⁵ Health in 2040: projected patterns of illness in England - The Health Foundation}

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