Martin Shaw: SMEs must tackle productivity

According to the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), workers take on average 4.1 days off sick a year[i]. While an individual's absence may be manageable in the short term through job sharing and overtime, for an SME it can lead to firm-wide losses in productivity and extra stresses on the business. With longer absences, the costs of statutory sick pay and temporary cover has to be factored in.  Research from the Society for Human Resource Management shows that every absence causes a manager's productivity to drop by 15.7% and makes the team as a whole 29.5...