Absenteeism, productivity, and workplace well-being: a prevalence–cost approach

Poor employee mental health and well-being impose significant costs on employers, not only through lost productivity but also via broader organizational disruption. Drawing on the concept of the ‘absence multiplier’, we argue that the true economic burden of mental health-related absenteeism is often underestimated. This paper develops and tests a prevalence – cost framework in which firms’ adoption of workplace well-being practices (WWPs) is modelled as a strategic investment decision influenced by both the prevalence of mental health-related absence and the marginal productivity costs it causes. Using longitudinal survey data from 5420 UK firms (2020–2024), we estimate random-effects Poisson models of WWP adoption across preventative, employee-centred, and treatment-focused categories. Results show that firms affected by mental health-related absenteeism adopt significantly…