Increasing numbers of South Africans are taking sick leave because of psychological illness, costing companies over R1-billion a year, management consultants said on Tuesday.
”About R19-billion was lost due to sick absenteeism in South Africa last year, and R1,2-billion of that was lost by companies who had to pay the direct costs of sick leave due to psychological reasons,” said Johnny Johnson, chief executive of Corporate Absenteeism Management Solutions (Cams).
Cams studied a sample of over 100 000 employees in more than 60 companies, and examined the medical certificates presented by employees after returning from sick leave.
They found that between March 2005 and the beginning of March 2006, 45 out of very 1 000 employees took time off for psychological reasons.
This had risen to 65 out of every 1 000 employees between March 2006 and March 2007.
Psychological illness includes depression and absenteeism due to stress.
The average number of days per year an employee was ill for psychological reasons was 4,6 days, double the time the average employee takes off for other illnesses, said Johnson.
”Companies should be asking themselves what they can do to make their staff happy and developing wellness-management programmes around these statistics. If they don’t, they can expect more of their staff to fall prone to psychological illness,” Johnson said. — Sapa