Housing association employees' 'sickness rates' revealed » Housing » 24dash.com

The average number of days lost each year through employee absence in the housing associations industry is 10.

And the average cost of sickness absence per employee per year is £606, according to new research.

Those are the figures calculated by a new innovative website which is available to all businesses keen to discover the extent of the financial headache they're left nursing when employees fall ill.

In just a few seconds companies can now get a reading based on the industry, postcode, number of employees and average employee salary.

www.costofabsence.com is the brainchild of BUPA Health Insurance, using data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Ann Greenwood, director of business markets for BUPA said: "Businesses need to understand the impact that sickness absence can have on them, in terms of their performance, productivity and efficiency, as well as the effect it will have on their employees.

"The figures will be a shock to many companies but businesses can take preventative action and private health cover can be a major step towards achieving a cleaner financial bill of health."

Figures out from the CBI estimate the cost of employee absence to the UK economy rose to over £13 billion in 2005 with a total loss of 164 million working days.