When Sickness Absence Rises, Trust Matters More Than Ever

UK employees took an average of 9.4 days of sickness absence last year, according to the CIPD. That’s up from 7.8 days in 2023 and 5.8 before the pandemic, fuelling a prolonged conversation that business leaders have been having about rising absence and its impact on national productivity.

The World Cup gave that conversation a dramatic edge, with 2am kick-offs and an estimated 3.6 million sick days taken across the tournament. The tournament brought to light an everyday challenge. How do employers and organisations protect performance while supporting employee wellbeing? Most staff members who call in sick are genuinely ill, and expect their employer to take their word when they phone in. As an employer do you trust your employees, or assume the worst? That’s a choice leaders must make each week: are you leading with trust, or control?

For further education, the challenge is particularly pressing. A single absence could mean a cancelled lesson, or disrupted teaching. At a time when the sector is already facing recruitment challenges and funding pressures, every member of staff matters.

Education feels this sooner than most

Few sectors have less room for error than education. Public sector workers took an average of 13.3 days of absence last year*, leading to stretched timetables at short notice, and a knock-on effect for learning. Unlike many office-based workplaces, colleges and further education institutions can’t always redistribute work when someone is absence. Meanwhile, specialist lecturers remain hard to find and even harder to replace, therefore retaining the people you already have is worth far more than policing them.

Colleges and training providers also shape the expectations the next generation has around work. For many students, the first workplace culture they experience is during placements or internships during further education. If that culture and approach is built on suspicion around every sick day, those behaviours can follow them throughout their careers. Employers are in a position to model something better: what a healthy working relationship built on trust and accountability looks like.

Suspicion doesn’t reduce absence. It reduces honesty.

When employers anticipate disruption, the initial instinct can often be to react firmly. This could mean sending company-wide email reminders on absence policies or using a firm tone when employees call in sick. These messages are usually well-intentioned as managers want to ensure consistency across teams while being fair to colleagues who are having to cover for absent employees.

But it rarely works. People who feel watched don’t become ill any less, they simply just become less honest about why they’re off. The organisations and managers that handle absence well take a different approach. They are clear about expectations, policies and plan cover early for on-site roles where flexibility isn’t possible. It is important for organisations to consider and support team members when they need it most. This doesn’t cost much, but it is what separates a team that quietly resents being monitored from one that feels trusted to do the right thing.

Trust is what keeps institutions steady

When staff feel trusted and supported, they are more likely to stay, more engaged in their work and better able to provide a consistent learning experience for students. In further education, where relationships between staff and students play such an important role in outcomes, that stability and engagement benefits everyone.

Small wellbeing gestures, such as fruit bowls and mindfulness posters are well meant, but don’t increase employee engagement or make anyone more likely to stay. What registers is how you respond when something matters. Staff are managing higher costs and a job market that feels shaky. Meet a difficult moment with trust and people remember it long after it’s passed. But meet it with a warning shot and they remember that instead.

Moments, like late starts or early finishes around the World Cup games, were  a testing moment for building a workplace that people are proud to be a part of and want to perform for.

Where to start

Getting this right doesn’t require a complete policy overhaul. It starts with being clear with your teams about expectations. Where roles allow it, offering flexibility can be provided through later start times or remote working. For teaching staff, it may be about planning cover earlier, giving managers the confidence to accommodate flexibility without disrupting students. Different roles require different approaches, but the underlying message remains the same: make trust the default rather than the exception.

By Jeanette Wheeler, Chief People Officer, MHR