A study of sickness absence data from 287 organisations with a total of 398,453 employees has shown that while employees took less time off sick last year, the cost increased. Personnel Today report the findings of a study by XpertHR which shows the median number of days lost to sickness absence overall fell to 5.6 for each employee in 2017, down from 6.6 the year before, equating to 2.5% of working time. The mean absence rate per member of staff was 6.1 days or 2.8% of working time. The cost to employers increased to £570 per employee on average in 2017, compared with £455 the year before. In the public sector, a median average of 9.8 days was lost to sickness per employee, compared to 5.0 days in the private sector.

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