The cost of presenteeism to UK small employers

Key takeaways

Presenteeism is working while unwell and performing below normal. It never appears in absence figures, so it is a true hidden cost. Small teams with no cover suffer most, because the person knows nobody else can do their work and comes in regardless.

• Presenteeism: at work, unwell, and working below normal capacity.
• 5 days a year at half output is 2.5 lost days absence records never show.
• It is highest where one person is the only cover for a task.
• Fix the cover and people can recover properly.

What is presenteeism?

Presenteeism is attending work while ill, injured or exhausted and being less productive as a result. It is the counterpart of absenteeism. The employee is present and paid, but output, accuracy and judgement are reduced, and recovery is often slower.

• The hidden costs of doing everything in-house
• The cost of sickness absence to a small employer

How do you estimate what it costs?

Estimate it by asking how many days a year people work while unwell and how much less they achieve. If an employee on £30,000 works five days a year at half capacity, that is 2.5 lost days, about £370 at a loaded £19.81 an hour. Across a team of ten it is £3,700, before the cost of errors and of illness spreading.

For context, the Office for National Statistics recorded a UK sickness absence rate of 2.0% in 2024. Presenteeism sits on top of that and is not counted.

Why are small in-house teams most affected?

Small in-house teams are most affected because absence has visible consequences. If payroll, the phones or dispatch depend on one person, that person knows a day off means a backlog or a failure. They come in. The business reads this as dedication when it is a sign of missing cover.

• The one-person department: risks and hidden costs
• Holiday and sickness cover for small teams

How do you reduce presenteeism?

Reduce it by making absence safe for the business and for the person.

• Make sure every critical task has a trained deputy or outside cover.
• State plainly that unwell staff should not work.
• Have managers set the example.
• Check sick pay arrangements do not force people in.
• Watch workload: sustained overload produces more illness.

• Small team burning out? Capacity is the fix

When is working while unwell reasonable?

It can be reasonable with a minor complaint, adjusted duties and the employee's agreement, particularly when working from home. It is not reasonable when the person is infectious, when the work is safety-critical, or when they are working only because nobody else can.

How do you spot presenteeism in a small team?

Presenteeism is visible if you look for it. The signs are in output and behaviour, not in attendance records.

• Low recorded sickness alongside visible tiredness or illness.
• Errors clustering in particular weeks.
• People working through lunch and logging on while on leave.
• The same person never absent in a critical week.
• Illness passing round the team each winter.

• Staff not taking annual leave: what it signals

What does sick pay have to do with it?

Sick pay influences whether people can afford to stay at home. GOV.UK sets Statutory Sick Pay at £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower, for eligible employees. For many staff that is a sharp drop in income, so they come in. Employers who pay only the statutory minimum should expect more presenteeism, and may find that a few days of company sick pay costs less than the errors and spread of illness it prevents.

What does it cost beyond lost output?

The wider costs are mistakes, slower recovery and contagion. Someone working unwell on payments, payroll or customer orders is more likely to make an error that takes hours to unwind. Recovery that would have taken two days at home takes a week at a desk. And one infectious person in a team of six can remove two or three colleagues the following week, which is when the business discovers how thin its cover is.

How does cover change the picture?

Cover removes the reason people feel they must work when ill. If the phones, the inbox and the urgent processing continue without them, staying at home has no consequence for colleagues or customers. Cover can be a trained deputy, a rota or a managed team handling the routine flow. The cost of arranging it is usually far less than the cost of one bad week without it.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see at month end: the only person who can run payroll works through flu because staff must be paid. Errors follow, and two colleagues are off the next week. A documented process and a second person able to run it would have cost a few hours.

• See client work
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Presenteeism checklist

Review these once a year.

• List tasks only one person can do.
• Arrange cover for each.
• Ask staff, anonymously, how often they work while unwell.
• Review your sick pay policy.
• Brief managers on what to do when someone is ill.

• The hidden cost audit: score your business in an hour

Next step

Tell us which tasks in your business have no cover. We will suggest how to back them up in a 30-minute call.