Sickness absence in excess of 7% - 16 days per employee per year
High incidences of musculo-skeletal and stress related absence
28% of the staff had absence levels above company target 3.5% and 32% had more than 6 spells in 12 months – almost no one had ever been spoken to
No process in place for reviewing absence – other than return to work interviews which were carried out mechanically with no impact

CHALLENGES

Management poorly engaged in the absence topic
Vague policy which allowed for almost 100% management discretion
No history of using Occupational Health to prevent case and supporting faster returns
Heavy unionisation - 80% - demanding changes

ACTIONS

Consistent centralised data collection and daily reporting to HR and line management via absencecare
Revised policy incl. triggers for action long term absences
Review meetings held with employees if a trigger was tripped and cautions given to employee with high absence levels
Introduction of the Bradford Factor to as a trigger for reducing persistent short term – access to calculations via absencecare's web based technology
Case management services to assist managers in problem cases
Day 1 referrals for all musculo-skeletal and stress-related absences
Training of line managers in data usage and absence management skills

Long term absence tracking between 2 and 3% for 8 months now
A more proactive and engaged management team using tools available incl. web based data and reports, trigger alerts and fast OH referrals
No stress cases longer that 2 weeks since introduction of day 1 referral – prior to introduction average length of stress-related absence was 5 weeks
A 35% reduction in frequency of absences due to back and neck problems
A 20 % reduction in the average duration of a long term absences
A 25% reduction in proportion of people still absent after three months