Government Debates Employee Absenteeism
Posted: Tuesday 22 November 2011
The BBC News website reports on the debate about whether or not GPs should “sign off long-term sick’'
It goes on to say that a Government-backed review suggests that people should be signed off for long-term sickness by an independent assessment service, and not by their GPs.
The review also proposes the introduction of tax breaks for firms which employ people who suffer from long-term conditions.
It is estimated the changes would send 20% of those off sick back to work.
This is an important debate for business owners and managers as it has significant ramifications on workforce and budget management.
It will be interesting to see how the Government intends to resource this, given the large number of long-term sickness absences that there are at any given time. That said, the intention appears to be that this will only apply to employees signed off for a very lengthy period of time, rather than applying to all long-term absences. The key will clearly be where the Government sets the cut-off point for absences being singed off by a GP.
Despite the focus on long-term absences which are, undoubtedly a significant problem for many employers, our own experience is that it is short-term absences which can be more of a problem for organisations, particularly as they often go largely undetected. The good news is that, unlike long-term absenteeism, it is very often possible for employers to deal with the situation effectively by taking certain key steps.
Our top tips for managing short-term absenteeism include:-
- Ensure you have proper Management Reporting – e.g. cost of absence, lost time rate, Bradford factor – so that you know the true picture within your organisation.
- Use benchmark data to help you make decisions. CIPD’s excellent annual absence management survey can be a key tool for employers to use in tackling absences. You can access a summary from People Management and the survey itself here.
- Ensure that absence figures are circulated to the relevant people within the organisation.
- Be clear who is responsible for absence management – is it HR, or the employee’s manager, or someone else?
- Be proactive in dealing with any issues and do not delay.
- Consider holding return to work interviews to discuss any absences.
- Introduce triggers so that the situation is specifically flagged up to the person responsible for absence management if an employee has a certain number of absences over a particular period of time.
- If you are not satisfied with the situation, you can enlist the help of an occupational health specialist, to assess an employee. This specialist may be more likely to challenge the employee’s ability to work. Independent occupational health specialists may be more challenging although this depends how they operate in practice.
For further information you can download our recent absence management podcast
If you would like advice regarding absenteeism contact Innes Clark, Head of Employment Team.
Sign up for our regular e-bulletins here
Download our app for Ipad and I phone here
