Employees in Belgium are increasingly off work due to illness, with the absenteeism rate now at record-high levels. However, there are great discrepancies among ages and industries.
Last year, employees spent a total of 9.83% of working time absent due to illness, an analysis by HR company Attentia showed. Companies have to miss 1 in 10 employees every day because of this time off, leading to an absenteeism rate never seen before.
"Both medium-term (more than a month) and long-term sick leave (more than a year) reached record highs last year," said Edelhart Kempeneers, medical director at Attentia, which looked at almost 120,000 employees, spread across 225 employers, to see how often they called in sick in 2023.
Long-term absenteeism is becoming more common, now sitting at 3.76% of working hours in 2023. Medium-term absenteeism between one month and one year, at 2.45%, has also never been higher. "Although that rise is less steady, due to a temporary decline in 2020," Kempeneers noted.
Who is most affected?
Long-term absenteeism increases as employees get older, Attentia found. However, the differences between the age groups are stark.
While workers in their twenties are off 0.39% of the working hours and 1.47% in their thirties, this rises to 3.09% when people reach their forties, doubling to 6.02% when they reach their fifties. By the time employees are in their sixties, this figure is as high as 12.22%.
Short-term absenteeism (less than one month), in turn, decreases slightly with age. Medium-term absenteeism is highest among employees aged 50 to 59.
Absenteeism among blue-collar workers is considerably higher (6.28%) than among white-collar workers (2.6%). "White-collar workers generally do less physically demanding work and also have more opportunities to work flexibly, or to work from home if they feel a bit less well, but are not really ill," Kempeneers explained.
When looking more in-depth, the 'Professional, scientific and technical activities' sector has the lowest percentage of long-term sick leave (1%) while the sector 'Human health and social work' has the highest percentage (9.9%). "In the healthcare sector, the physically and emotionally demanding nature of the work and higher exposure to pathogens may play a role."
Meanwhile, long-term sick leave is twice as high among women as among men. Among women, absence of more than one year increased particularly sharply in recent years, from 4.67% in 2021 to 5.62% in 2022 and as high as 5.9% last year. Among men, the figure was just 2.65% in 2023.
The same trend was recorded for absenteeism between one month and one year: This increased among women from 2.66% in 2021 to 2.92% in 2022 and 3.18% in 2023, compared to 2.07% among men in 2023. However, here, the differences are much smaller.
"Women are still more likely than men to take care of things at home besides work; just think of childcare, housework or informal care," said Kempeneers. "Also, a lot is still not known about complaints related to menopause, which is often misunderstood as burnout."
What's to blame?
Kempeneers explained that the rise in absenteeism is driven by several interconnected factors. "There is the increasing workload with high expectations and tight deadlines. This is compounded by the growing emphasis on individual performance and productivity, often at the expense of personal well-being."
The rapid technological advances also contribute to an 'always on call' culture, which can also hurt health. "However there is also a growing awareness around mental health, making employees more likely to take sick leave for psychological complaints."
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The longer the absence, the less likely it is that employees can successfully return to work with their original employer, meaning it is important to know how to turn the tide. Kempeneers should focus on prevention and communication about the policy, but also in the context of reintegration, to prevent long-term sickness absence.
"It is a misconception that employees who are sick at home should especially not be disturbed. Keeping in touch appropriately is just crucial to getting long-term sick employees back to work successfully," he concluded.
