In a survey of 12,404 organisations and a sample of 426,935 employees (Source: SD Worx) the total absenteeism rate in Belgium currently stands at 6,38%.

Blue collar worker absenteeism rates rise to 8,69% whilst white collar absenteeism stands at 4,98%.

Women tend to be absent for more days than men at a rate of 8,19% versus men at 5,21%. Not entirely explained by maternity leave which stands at 1,74%. Women also have half the number of workplace accidents than men.

Absenteeism also increases with time spent in the workplace. Those working less than a year rate 4,98% whilst people working longer than 20 years in an organisation rate 8,22%.

Through a mapping process Dr. Stein's model clearly shows the best and worst performing teams, those with the lowest performance also have employees with the poorest health and highest absenteeism rates. Through a facilitated benchmarking process working with team leaders across the spectrum from the best to the worst teams on a number of different dimensions, Dr. Stein has helped organisations improve their overall performance by the low performance teams assimilating behaviours and following practices that were prevalent in the high performance teams.

The model is based on 3 main factors all related to trust and effective leadership which effect performance and health of an individual:

Comprehensibility: people understand what is going on around them

Manageability: people find means and ways to cope with different and difficult situations

Meaningfulness: people can constitute sense and meaning again and again in what they are doing.

If any of these situations are not present in an individuals daily work life then they will soon feel that they are not in control, they will not cope with daily stresses, will underperform, their immune system resistance lowers and soon they become ill.