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Absence Calculator

The cost of illness to New Zealand employers is likely to be more than $1,500 per employee or over $2 billion across the whole workforce, according to research conducted by TNS Conversa, Jan 2009. ¹

Have you ever stopped to think how much absence or ‘unplanned’ leave is costing your organisation each year? Use the calculator below to find out the impact absence may be having on your business.

Before you start, it would be helpful to have the following data from your organisation: total headcount, average number of days lost to absence per FTE and average annual salary.

1. Based on statistics from Statistics New Zealand; the cost of 'Presentee' days are estimated at 50% of the employee's costs for a full day (average 7.5 hours at $24 per hour).

Absence Calculator

Total FTE*s (headcount)

* FTE - fulltime equivalent

Average number of days lost annually due to sickness and absenteeism per FTE

Average annual salary

NB: Average NZ annual salary - $45,000 before tax

The cost of absence to your business

Annual cost of absence in your organisation is currently

Estimated total lost days per year -

Total cost of lost days per year -

Average cost per employee per year -

The calculation above just gives an indication of the cost of salaries paid to absent staff. It doesn’t take into account other costs to your business, such as overtime paid to staff to cover the absence, the engagement of temporary staff or other indirect costs such as administration costs, reduced quality and adverse impact on customers.

Conservative estimates consider indirect costs to be between 4-7 times the cost indicated above. Imagine the benefit to your business if you could reduce this rate of absence...

By reducing absence in your organisation through healthy initiatives and better employment engagement you could significantly increase your business’s productivity and lower the cost of absence.

To find out more about what you can do to help reduce absence in your workplace contact Southern Cross on 0800 323 555.

To read more about the direct and indirect costs of absence go to the Learning Centre.

The results of the Absence calculator are indicative only and are based on the information you input. Results should be used in conjunction with other data and analysis when making business decisions.