New data from Manulife Financial Corporation shows that companies lose 48 days from each employee, on average, to presenteeism and actual absence, costing employers close to $645-million, annually.
The Manulife 2022 Wellness Report is an assessment of existing workplace measures implemented by Canadian employers. Researchers for the report have surveyed more than 18,300 employees and more than 170 organizations since 2020. In 2022, 47 organizations and 4,921 employees responded to the surveys in February, May and October.
“A sizable portion of Canadian workers are struggling to take care of their health and well-being, resulting in a significant drop in productivity throughout the workforce,” the company states in an announcement about the report’s publication. “While some productivity loss due to absence and presenteeism is expected, it is concerning to see these numbers have increased year-over-year for the past three years, says Manulife Canada’s head of group benefits, Ashesh Desai.
The report finds the average number of days lost to absences and presenteeism has increased by seven days, compared to 2021 data. Overall in 2022, employees lost 48.1 days due to health related absence and presenteeism, up from 41.2 days in 2021 and 40.8 days in 2020.
