FEATURE: CORPORATE HEALTH
Picture of health
Stress is now the number one cause of long-term absence as job insecurity weighs heavy on the workplace
S
tress 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 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Absence Management survey.
A link between job security and mental health problems is also revealed in the survey, which was conducted in association with private health insurer Simplyhealth. Employers planning to make redundancies in the next six months are significantly more likely to report an increase in mental health problems among their staff (51 per cent compared with 32 per cent who are not planning redundancies). For manual workers, stress is now level with acute medical conditions and has overtaken musculoskeletal problems to become the top cause of long-term absence. While among non-manual staff, stress has moved ahead of acute medical conditions. There is a particular increase in stress-related absence among public
sector organisations, with 50 per cent of these respondents reporting an increase. Public sector respondents identify the amount of organisational change and restructuring 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 per cent) compared with last year (10 per cent) and is higher than in the private (14 per cent) and non-profit sectors (14 per cent). Unsurprisingly, given the significant budget cuts, 43 per cent of public
sector organisations report they will be making redundancies over the next six months (compared with 17 per cent in the private sector and 24 per cent of non-profit organisations). Dr Jill Miller, CIPD adviser, said: “The survey this year shows that stress
is for the first time the number one cause of long-term sickness absence, highlighting the heightened pressure many people feel under in the workplace as a result of the prolonged economic downturn.
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12 CHAMBERLINK 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56