Workplace Sickness Reaches all Time High

Keeping your workforce healthy  should be the top priority for every employer.

Latest figures released in April  by the Office for National Statistics show that levels of UK sick absence have reached a record high. An estimated 185.6 million working days in the UK were lost because of sickness or injury – with minor illnesses accounting for almost 30% of all occurrences.

The level of absenteeism across all age groups is the highest since 2004, with the highest rate of sick absence in 2022 including women, older workers, those with long term health conditions, people working part time and people working in care, leisure or other service occupations.

Respiratory conditions including colds and flu have overtaken mental health conditions as the fourth most common reason for sickness absence in 2022, accounting for more than twice the proportion of occurrences they did before the pandemic.

Bugs are easily transferred between employees in a workplace environment and now that staff are back in the office either full time or several times a week on a hybrid arrangement, keeping the working environment as healthy as possible is important.

Even with new higher standards such as the use of hand sanitiser and regularly cleaning surfaces to reduce the risk of transmission, computer equipment can still often be overlooked. An antibacterial wipe of the keyboard is good practice to keep the surface clean, but it doesn’t get to all the germs potentially lurking beneath.

Techclean recommend a minimum of quarterly deep cleaning of your workstations and it’s not just the keyboard – there’s also the mouse, the screens, the phone and the printers which are regularly touched but less regularly cleaned.

Want to find out more? Call us on  01530 513305 or email [email protected] to see how we can help keep your office free from infection.