Sickness rates in Germany’s industry: a growing problem
The latest statistics speak for themselves: the sickness rate in Germany is rising steadily. This alarming trend is confirmed by the local health insurance companies. There are many reasons for this development, but working from home undoubtedly plays a decisive role, as a survey conducted by the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) health insurance company shows. Around half of those surveyed stated that they work from home despite health problems, and one in four employees even go to work when they are ill, but how many sick days are considered “normal”? How is the sickness rate developing in the country?
The sickness rate is determined by the statutory health insurance funds in Germany at the beginning of the month and is based on the number of members who were absent due to incapacity to work in the previous month. As a rule, only those cases are taken into account in which a doctor’s certificate of incapacity for work is available. As such a certificate is usually only issued after three days of absence, the actual sickness rate is usually higher than the number of reported sick days.
Sick leave is calculated by determining the percentage of calendar days in a given period on which each employee is unfit for work on average. For example, the sickness rate is 5.8% if members of a health insurance fund are absent from work for an average of 1.8 days in January due to illness (1.8 / 31 x 100% = 5.8%).
According to DAK-Gesundheit data, the sickness rate of working DAK policyholders was 5.5% in 2023. This means that 55 out of 1000 employees were on sick leave every day of the year. This corresponds to the level of the previous year and thus remains at a record level. Techniker Krankenkasse, the largest health insurance provider in Germany with over 11 million policyholders, also reported a record high sickness rate in the first half of 2023. In the first half of the year, TK-insured employees were on sick leave for an average of 9.5 days, compared to 9.1 days in the same period last year.
Reasons for the increase in absenteeism
The main reasons for the increase in absences are colds, bronchitis and flu, as reported by the health insurance companies. TK boss Jens Baas suspects that the increase in infectious diseases is due to pandemic catch-up effects. In addition, electronic certificates of incapacity for work (eAU) have contributed to more short-term cases being recorded in the statistics.
The causes of incapacity for work are varied and range from harmless colds to severe depression. Mental illnesses in particular have led to an increase in days of absence in recent years. The DAK reports a 41% increase in days lost due to mental illness from 2011 to 2021, with a further increase of 7.4% in 2023. However, it is important to emphasize that this could be due to increased awareness of the issue, as mental illness is now discussed more openly.
High sickness rates and shortage of skilled workers weigh on industry
Last year, sick leave reduced economic output by 0.8 percentage points. In 2023, the German economy shrank by 0.3 percent. Without the absences, Germany would have grown by 0.5 percent and would therefore not be in recession.
In its study, the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies points out that the industry suffers particularly from shortfalls, as it has fewer opportunities to compensate for them compared to other sectors. Of the total 26 billion euros that the economy loses due to downtime, up to ten billion euros are lost in the industrial sector. This corresponds to around one percent of the total value added in this sector. Due to the significant size of industry in Germany, these losses have a considerable impact on the country’s economic performance. The researchers warn that if the sickness absence rate recorded over the last two years becomes the new norm, the German economy would be missing the work of around 350,000 full-time employees. In view of the demographic challenges that Germany is already facing, this scenario should not become a permanent situation.
The signals are alarming, especially in the manufacturing industry, which is characterized by high personnel value creation. With over 8 million employees and almost 25,000 companies, the manufacturing industry is a driving force for the German economy.If services fail here, there is a dangerous cascade effect.
Opportunities to increase efficiency in industry despite labor shortages
It is therefore not surprising that the manufacturing industry is increasingly relying on resilient solutions to overcome skills shortages and high sickness rates. This requires solutions that can provide short-term production capacities as well as procurement systems that remedy the long-term shortage of resources — without tying up scarce human resources in purchasing or development.
InstaWerk, an on-demand manufacturing platform, offers a scalable and highly available option for the procurement of turned and milled parts.Thanks to its extensive manufacturing network, InstaWerk supports industrial companies in realizing urgently needed resources for component production at the push of a button. Thanks to a digital front end, companies can call up production capacities at any time if their own production facilities or existing suppliers are unavailable.In times of high sick days and uncertain component deliveries, InstaWerk thus offers urgently needed support services for industrial companies.The advantages of such a production network are obvious: reliability, cost efficiency and availability.By networking with a large number of manufacturing plants worldwide, InstaWerk minimizes the risk of production downtime and ensures constant availability of capacities.The platform optimizes manufacturing costs by bundling orders and using efficient manufacturing processes.
Relieving the burden on the workforce in management, purchasing and development
Relieving the burden on the production workforce through the targeted purchase of production components enables bottlenecks to be overcome and production to be maintained. At the same time, the platform simplifies the procurement process through instant pricing and automated ordering systems, which significantly reduces the burden on purchasing. For the development departments, quickly available prototypes, tools and components are an invaluable advantage that accelerates innovation cycles.In addition, efficient processing via InstaWerk allows management to concentrate on strategic decisions instead of getting lost in operational details.
In addition to these specific advantages, the use of on-demand production platforms such as InstaWerk offers further general benefits. Companies benefit from increased flexibility in production, making it possible to react quickly to market changes and individual customer requirements.The wide range of manufacturing options and materials accessible via the platform opens up new opportunities for product innovation.
In summary, InstaWerk is a groundbreaking solution that is fundamentally transforming the manufacturing industry.By combining an extensive manufacturing network, cutting-edge technologies and a customer-centric approach, InstaWerk helps to increase production efficiency, reduce operating costs and accelerate product development. Particularly in times of high sickness rates and a shortage of skilled workers, InstaWerk thus noticeably relieves the burden on industrial companies.
