The biggest asset to an organisation is its employees – staff can make or break a business – so having employees off sick is both costly and detrimental.
Sickness absence costs the economy £14 billion a year (source: HSE). More than 23 million days are lost due to work related ill health and 4.7 million to workplace injuries.
The biggest asset to an organisation is its employees – staff can make or break a business – so having employees off sick is both costly and detrimental.
Sickness absence costs the economy £14 billion a year (source: HSE). More than 23 million days are lost due to work related ill health and 4.7 million to workplace injuries.
Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders account for the majority of days lost (11.3 and 8.3 million days respectively).
The effect of absent staff includes reduced productivity; increased workloads and stress for colleagues, resulting in low morale and resentment; unnecessary and costly recruitment; hiring (and training) of agency staff and possible loss of reputation among key stakeholders.
So the main question facing employers is ‘what can be done to improve employee health, morale and motivation?’
Here are some solutions:
- sickness absence policy: review and update it regularly; train managers to interpret it fairly; communicate it to all employees regularly
- monitor employees’ sickness absences: record absences to help identify trends; ensure the member of staff (not a family member or friend) phones in on the first morning of their sickness
- be educated about employees’ health – have health questionnaires for new starters and encourage existing staff to keep you informed of any new health conditions or changes in medication
- introduce a trigger system such as the Bradford Factor, which is a simple calculation used to highlight frequent, short term employee sick leave over a set period (usually a year) or provide (or revise) attendance incentives
- develop line manager capability to manage absences: hold return to work interviews for every absence, even short absences, on the first day back. Provide training in conducting these interviews.
- Involve OH professionals as early as possible. By using their medical expertise, the employee could be back at work much sooner than without OH intervention. The longer an employee is off work, the harder it is to return.
- Offer flexible working arrangements: eg if your older workers perform better early in the day, change their working hours to incorporate an earlier start. Or if a parent has to do a school run, organise their working day around this.
- Promote healthier living initiatives for the workforce to prevent them going off sick in the first place