A major survey of sickness absence trends in manufacturing companies has shown a clear link between significant investment in occupational health (OH) and business benefits of reduced short and long term absence rates as well as improved employee welfare.
The survey of over 600 companies, carried out by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation and, one of the largest of its kind in the UK, showed that where there is OH support (either internal or external) 39% of companies saw a reduction in short-term absence and, 28% of companies saw a reduction in long-term absence. This compares with declines of 22% and 19% respectively who saw a decrease where there was no OH provision.
The figures are a clear vindication that committing resources to tackling sickness absence and placing an emphasis on rehabilitation and getting people back to work can benefit both employers and employees. Current estimates suggest that the cost of incapacity benefit/long term sickness absence to the UK economy is running at just under £13 billion and £12 billion respectively.
In addition, the survey also showed that the manufacturing sector leads the way in investing in OH with 65% of manufacturing companies providing some form of OH service. This is more than double the national average estimated by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) of 25-33%.
Commenting on the findings, EEF Chief Medical Adviser, Professor Sayeed Khan, said:
“These figures demonstrate a clear link between addressing sickness absence and improved business performance. Those companies who still put this issue in the ‘too difficult’ tray would do well to sit up and take note of the very real benefits they would reap from tacking the problem.”
In terms of promoting rehabilitation and getting people back to work, whilst the survey showed companies would have an appetite for the government’s ‘Health, Work and Well-being’ strategy, the results also highlighted a number of policy issues for government and HSE to consider.
For example, only 10% of companies see government and HSE OH policies as the drivers for investing in this area. This shows the need for a different approach on the part of government and HSE to gain employers’ attention.
In addition, companies were reporting that significant barriers to rehabilitation are still being provided by the GP (41%) and slow access to NHS services. Government must therefore address the training of health professionals and GPs to raise their awareness of sickness absence and rehabilitation issues.
Commenting on the survey, Dr Bill Gunnyeon, Chief Medical Adviser at the Department for Work & Pensions said:
“It is encouraging to see the efforts companies have made to provide good quality occupational health advice for their employees and the beneficial results in terms of reduced sickness absence rates. Improving Working Lives is one of the key components of the Health Work and Wellbeing Strategy and manufacturing companies are clearly setting an example for others to follow.”
Other key findings:
- The overall sickness absence rate was 3.1% in 2005 (7.1 working days lost per employee). This compares to 3.6% in 2004 (8.1 days lost per employee)
- ‘General wellbeing of employees’ was cited as the second most common reason for concern about sickness absence (45%) behind ‘management concern at cost of sickness absence’ (74%).
- Companies reported that over one third of their employees (38%) did not have a single episode of sickness absence.
- Minor illness was reported by 95% of companies as the main cause of short term absence, followed by back pain and other muscular/joint problems (51%)
- Surgery/medical test was the main cause of long term absence (45%) followed by back problems (40%), non work related injuries (26%) and stress (24%)
- Employers tended to use specialist occupational health or other consultancies to provide their OH support rather than their GP.