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The first winter without strict COVID guidelines has left professional firms feeling the pinch, says MYOB.
Sick leave epidemic slams small businesses
26 August 2022
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7 minute read
Small and medium-sized businesses have been hit by an epidemic of sick leave, carers and personal leave, according to figures from MYOB.
Chief employee experience officer at MYOB, Helen Lea, said that SMEs had been squeezed by the sheer volume of absentees.
“It has been a difficult winter for many small businesses and we continue to see them dealing with leave requirements brought on by COVID and other illnesses,” said Ms Lea.
“After a brief drop in the amount of sick, carers and personal leave taken by small business employees in June, MYOB data shows the July peak reached 44 per cent above the long-term average.
“This is a similar level to what we saw in April and May, although thankfully not as high as January where SMEs were grappling with more than 100 per cent increase in employees taking this leave.”
MYOB said that the increased level of sick leave taken could be attributed to businesses facing the first winter with relaxed COVID guidelines along with the spread of colds and flu through the community.
Victoria had the highest rate of personal leave at 47 per cent above the pre-COVID baseline in July, followed by Tasmania and South Australia at 46 per cent and 43 per cent respectively.
The professional, scientific and technical services sector was harder hit than many with sick leave 50 per cent above pre-pandemic levels although that was put in the shade by arts and recreation, which experienced a 74 per cent increase.
The healthcare and social assistance sector was impacted least, with an increase of just 29 per cent.
Ms Lea said the increased levels of leave would probably continue beyond the end of winter.
“With some experts predicting the COVID peak will hit in mid-August, it may be another month until COVID cases subside and warmer weather provides some relief from the uptake of sick, carers and personal leave on small businesses,” she said.
The firm determined its index by using anonymised data from more than 1 million small-business employees, calculating the number of workers who received personal leave, sick leave or carers leave for a pay cycle and then dividing by the total number of employees paid during that period.
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- It would be interesting to compare those businesses and industries that allow work from home versus those that require staff to attend the office. I would expect that sick leave in those working from home would have dropped significantly compared to the rise that MYOB has seen. Obviously this only applies to those industries where WFH is possible.0
- Another thing disturbing about this article is that MYOB is able to extract this data from its small business clients records. Employers are forced to use software for Single Touch Payroll and now it appears it is being accessed by MYOB for their own purposes!
This data should not be being accessed by the software providers!1 - Are they really sick or in isolation due to close contact? Feel sorry for both the employee and employer, it's bloody hard to make a dollar at the moment. PS Government red tape is not decreasing either.0
- Taking leave is an entitlement and basic right to not have to front up to work when you are not well, physical or mental. We need to stop fixating on the taking of leave and focus on other more important reasons such as why are they needing it - stress, workload, lifestyle and if there is anything that as an employer you can do to ease this. It's winter, people get sick, people are actually taking leave instead of spreading it at work, not rocket science.1
- There are actual real people at the end of the leave that is being taken. The way leave is talked about in the article is a little dehumanizing as nobody really wants to be sick.2
