According to EEF’s annual survey of over 600 companies, one of the largest of its kind in the
UK , almost 40% of companies believe GPs and employee resistance to rehabilitation, along with the limited capacity of the NHS to provide faster access to treatment are preventing further reductions in sickness absence.
Commenting on the findings, EEF Chief Medical Adviser, Professor Sayeed Khan, said:
“Those manufacturers who invest in training their staff are continuing to reap the benefits of a pro-active approach to absence management. However, despite this investment significant barriers remain and all parties need to make a step change to promote a culture of rehabilitation in the workplace. We know that the Royal College of GPs is looking at training GPs in work and health, but the issue of NHS waiting lists remains to be addressed.”
The survey also showed the number of days lost to sickness showed a slight improvement down to 3% (6.7 days per employee) from 3.1% (7.1 days per employee) in 2005. However, compared to the figures for 2004 (3.55% and 8.08 days per employee), there is a clear downward trend.
EEF believes that this continued reduction in sickness absence is due to a more pro-active approach to absence management and investment by companies in training for line managers. Some 88% of companies now have a written policy on absence management, whilst 34% of managers received training in managing long term sickness absence, up from 28% in 2005.
The survey showed the positive benefits of such investment with 40% of companies who trained their managers reporting a decrease in all types of sickness absence. This compared to 26% where no absence management training was carried out.
Other key findings:
Nearly nine in ten respondents see lost production as the biggest cost arising from employee health-related issues, with 80% seeing sick pay as the second biggest cost. Whilst the financial effect is hard to calculate, of greatest importance is the effect of absence on staff morale.
In terms of the causes of long term absence, almost half of companies raised surgery or medical tests and a further 45% raised back problems, both similar to the previous year’s figures. Stress is the third highest cause, with a third of respondents citing it, up from 24% in 2005.
An average of 39% of employees in a company had no absence over the whole year, a 1% improvement on the previous year’s figure.
Manual employees again showed a higher absence rate than non-manual employees (3.8% compared to 1.9%), although both figures are down from 2005.
Just over a fifth of companies reported seeing an increase in short term sickness absence compared to over a third seeing an increase in long term sickness absence.
The South East of England and Greater London show the lowest absence rate with 2.6% of working days lost to sickness absence.
Almost all companies (99%) want the current system of self certification to be at one week or less
The survey examined responses from 625 EEF member organisations, covering 127,585 employees.
ENDS