Why are big companies getting sicker? The sad truth behind this
- famchonlou
- May 9
- 2 min read
On World Day for Safety and Health at Work, a new analysis by HR provider Partena Professional has revealed something surprising: employees in large companies are calling in sick nearly twice as often as those in small businesses. The question is why ? And more importantly, what can employers do to fix it ?
Is absenteeism a matter of size?
After studying data from 150,000 employees across 20,600 companies, Partena Professional found that sick leave accounts for 15.09% of total working time in companies with over 1,000 employees. In comparison, smaller companies with fewer than 10 staff members lose just 7.70% of working time to illness. That’s nearly a twofold difference !
Why such a big absenteeism gap?
According to Ruben Lombart, CEO of HR Partners (a Partena Professional subsidiary), one possible explanation is visibility :
« In small businesses, when someone’s missing, everyone notices. That can create social pressure; not wanting to leave teammates hanging. But in large companies, the impact of one absence is more spread out ».
In small teams, people tend to take more ownership of their roles and feel more connected to the work. In bigger organisations, it's easier to feel like just another name on the payroll. That distance can affect engagement and eventually attendance.
The study also showed that some industries naturally have higher attendance than others. Sectors like: Performing arts had 84.8% attendance, Cinema had 84.57%, while audiovisual had 81.69%
On the flip side, the steel industry saw the lowest attendance, with employees working just 41.19% of their total time, which is a striking difference.
Not all absenteeism is equal. Short-term sick leave, in particular, can cause real headaches for managers. It’s hard to plan for and expensive to cover on short notice. That’s why understanding the why behind absence, whether physical, mental, or organisational, is so important
Could there be a solution to absenteeism ?
As Ruben Lombart notes, it's also worth looking at proposed policy changes, such as faster reintegration plans and partial wage reimbursements. While not yet confirmed or limited to one country, these kinds of ideas could help employers manage absence better in the long run.
At MilaCom, we believe that employee well-being and workplace culture are just as important as policies and procedures. Sometimes sickness doesn’t just come from immediate health issues, it could be as a result of prolonged work pressure, mental pressure or even from poor relationships at work or other reasons. If big companies want to shrink their sick leave numbers, they’ll need more than HR tools: they’ll need people-first strategies that build trust, connection, and accountability across every level.
References:
Partena Professional.(n.d.). Prevent absenteeism in your company thanks to new measures included in the government agreement
댓글