This ‘strap line’ was popular with the HSE for some time and for good reason. The EEF Sickness Absence Survey has shown that long-term absence is a significant cost, especially for larger companies and particularly for manual workers. For details on how to obtain a copy of the EEF survey, see 2005 Survey.
The cost of absence can vary significantly for different businesses, even if they experience similar levels of absenteeism, for a number of reasons. You need to establish the ‘basic’ and ‘associated’ costs for your organisation.
Basic costs for absent days will normally include:
- salary/wages plus the normal ‘on costs’ like NI and pension contributions;
- overtime payments to in-house staff to cover the absence; and/or
- payments to agency staff.
On top of these will be associated costs including:
- any training necessary for in-house or agency staff;
- extra costs because of lower productivity levels as replacement staff become fully acquainted with the new tasks; and
- lower productivity levels because of low levels of morale, lack of commitment, resentment and, possibly, poor product quality.
It is, therefore, in the best interest of your business to reduce absenteeism by managing it effectively, having return to work interviews, for example, and acting quickly to get absent staff members back to work as soon as possible, through a suitable rehabilitation programme.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation covers a range of measures, such as medical intervention or changes to working arrangements or the workplace, in order to help an absent employee return to work. It can also enable an employee who is still working but suffering from a chronic illness to be more effective at work (see Rehabilitation)
For further details, also see the EEF publication Fit for Work
The business case for rehabilitation
Typically, short-term self-certificated absences account for most spells of absence, but long-term absences account for most of the total days lost. For instance, it is not uncommon in the manufacturing sector for short-term absences to account for roughly 80 per cent of spells, but long-term absences account for about 80 per cent of time lost. It is, therefore, the long-term sickness absences that usually cause the greatest financial cost to the business. Effective rehabilitation can significantly reduce that cost.
Benefits of early intervention
For most employers, musculoskeletal disorders and stress/mental health issues are the main causes of long-term absence. These are conditions for which it is particularly important to begin rehabilitation at the earliest opportunity to prevent them becoming chronic.
Further information is available from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and Physiofirst
The evidence also confirms that the longer an employee is off work, the less likely he or she is to return to working for their employer or, indeed, to stay in the labour market. For example, an employee off work for six months has only a 50 per cent chance of returning to work; at 12 months’ absence, the likelihood of returning to work is about 25 per cent and by two years of absence, the prospects of successfully returning to work are virtually nil.
The EEF publication Fit for Work (see above) provides clear and detailed guidance on introducing a rehabilitation programme to suit your business, together with a number of case studies to help you justify the cost and effort needed to introduce such a programme.