Around 2 million people are reporting they suffer from an illness which they believe was caused by or made worse by their current or past work. Around 35 million working days are lost every year (1.5 days per Worker – bet it’s even higher in your business) 28 million days lost due to work-related ill health and around 7 million due to workplace injury.

EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM – manage the situation

Clearly, employee absences are both costly and disruptive. In any year, workplace absence typically averages a cost of £600 per employee. Multiply this figure by the number of staff in your company, and take into account the disruption to and lost work caused to other employees who have to cover for their absent colleagues. For a large dealership with 100 staff – this equates to £60,000 pa at 1.5 days per person and I bet it’s far higher for yours? Clearly, absenteeism is a big damaging factor on profit. Take practical measures to reduce the effect - Track absenteeism Can you identify any particular problem areas? Are there patterns of absence? Does a particular department or employee have a worse record than average? Consider morale Unhappy staff are more likely to take time off. One way to improve morale is to fire all the unhappy people. A financial incentive for low absence is one solution, a financial did-incentive for absence is another – like SSP or salary at management discretion. The long term solution would be to create a friendly environment, where staff feel valued as part of a team, with flexible, family friendly policies are in place - aimed at and likely to prove more effective at keeping absenteeism to a minimum. Team spirit, consciously engendered can also influence potential absentees by dint of the peer pressure not to stress colleagues by thinning the team. Support sick employees Long-term sickness must be handled sensitively. At some stage in an extended absence – a second opinion must be appropriate as to the nature and reason for extended absence. The employee's permission must be sought and given before applying for a medical report however, the very request can spur a malingerer into returning and the formal approach will, at least, provide definitive information as to the nature and expected duration of an extended absence. Establish whether you should keep in touch so that the employee doesn't feel isolated but don’t fall foul of recent cases where telephoning staff off work has been construed as inappropriate and unlawful. Consider referring them to an occupational health specialist – useful to identify ways of helping them return to work and also should give you an indication of how long the absence is likely to last. Have a clear policy - and enforce it Make sure staff are well informed regarding sickness policy and procedures and that these are seen to be followed. Make sure the business is able to and actually does keep accurate records. You may only be aware of sickness on the part of staff on the clock and staff who are highly visible. Beware cultures where staff can chuck a sickie and wait to see if it was noticed or pay docked. The management of sickness absence starts with solid, reliable information with which to manage the situation. It is sensible to ensure that employees are aware of the right to request an independent medical assessment in the event of an employee taking substantial numbers of days off work. When recruiting you could check a potential employee's attendance record with their previous employer, and you may consider requiring all prospective staff to undergo a medical examination, certainly in sections of the business prone to higher absence rates – this in itself doesn’t have a logical connect with lower sickness absence per-se but the knock on effect to existing staff is that you are getting serious and to potential malingerers in the recruitment process it flags that they should maybe look to work somewhere that’s a bit more laid back.. Always, always, always - carry out a return to work interviews; make it clear, from now on, that RTWI’s will be carried out for all sickness absences in future. This may just let the employee know that their contribution was missed, or it could help identify underlying problems which will influence your management tactics. It may also deter staff from feigning illness. Remember always that disciplinary action for unacceptable absence must be distinguished from capability procedures related to illness. Genuine illness is bound to affect capability and employers should be aware of the full range of conditions which come under the Disability Discrimination Act. In such cases, reasonable adjustments must be made to help the employee return to work. Employee absence however is a serious issue for most businesses and most managers don’t manage this situation and even exacerbate it Time out of number, Group HR professionals are called in when it’s too late – to be confronted with a potential litigious situation where an employee has taken substantial sick time at the end of a period of performance pressure but where no records exist as to the management of the performance issues which have culminated in sickness absence for which no robust management process has been deployed . In these circumstances, costs escalate further and in an entirely unnecessary way had only the manager managed the situation. There are still steps you can take to reduce its impact. It is vital to the effective management of sickness absence that effective and accurate measurement and monitoring is in place. An organisation simply must know the cost of this issue, its likely cause and how to effectively reduce it. CIPD absence surveys regularly conclude that fewer than half of employers monitor the cost of absence. Similarly, it follows that only half of organisations have set a target for reducing absence and less that half of organisations benchmark themselves against other employers. In times of ever reducing margins, productivity is key – sickness is the often unseen attenuator of productivity – wake up and sniff the coffee before the sickness gets you.