More sick reports due to Covid-19, infected employees recover sooner

Advice of the occupational health & safety services: discuss returning to the office and continue benefiting from the advantages of hybrid work

The average absenteeism rate in the Netherlands increased in January 2022 to 5% (compared to 4.8% in December 2021). For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, more than half of the sick reports were caused by Covid-19. Thanks to the milder omicron variant, employees with Covid-19 can return to work sooner: 73% recover after two weeks, according to figures of occupational health & safety services HumanCapitalCare and ArboNed, which are both part of the HumanTotalCare group and jointly work for approximately 1 million employed persons and 63,000 employers. Now that the recommendation to work from home has been eased, occupational health & safety services recommend discussing how employees can return to the office as well as to continue benefiting from the advantages of working from home.

Faster recovery from Covid-19

As a result of the high number of Covid-19 infections, the number of sick reports also increased in January. “In January, for the first time, more than half of the sick reports were related to Covid-19,” says Jurriaan Penders, medical officer and director of medical affairs at HumanCapitalCare. “Although more sick reports are related to Covid-19, we have noticed that the omicron variant and the booster campaign have resulted in faster recovery of employees; 73% recover after two weeks. In November, when we were still dealing with the delta variant, this was 57%.”

Major differences

Just as in other months, HumanCapitalCare and ArboNed have noticed major differences between companies of different sizes and between different sectors. “The absenteeism rate of SMEs (4.6%)—companies with less than 200 employees—is, as always, lower than in large companies,” says Penders. “There are also major differences between sectors. Outliers remain the healthcare sector with 7% and the industrial sector with 5.8%. The lowest increase in absenteeism rates in January was in the financial and business service providers, partly due to the possibility of working from home and the options this provides for working in case of mild Covid-19 symptoms.”

Recommendation for working from home

During last Tuesday’s press conference, a recommendation to ease working from home was announced, among other things. For some people that is a relief and for others this change is a cause of stress and tension: rhythms change, stimuli increase and there might also be the fear of getting infected at the workplace. Penders: “We recommend that employers discuss with employees how to return to the office. Don’t just go back to the same method of working as before Covid-19. Together discuss what is the right balance between working from home and at the office, so that everyone can continue to benefit from the advantages of hybrid work. Returning to the office carries the risk of increasing the number of Covid-19 infections. Therefore, following the basic rules remains important.”