Part 1 : Sickness Absence, putting your house in order

Tuesday February 4, 2020

But what are you doing about it?

No doubt you’ve heard the expression widely attributed to Albert Einstein ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Well, the general idea applies to sickness absence. Basically, if you want reduced sickness absence rates then try different approaches.

What’s causing the sickness absence? Having an evidence base is a good place to start.

Recording and monitoring absence is important. This will give you the information you need that will not only tell you what the main reasons for sickness absence are but also whether there are any patterns of behaviour that need addressing.

The following are the top reasons for sickness absence.

  1. common colds/flu, stomach aches, etc.

If the common cold is the bane of your working life think about how you might be able to minimise its impact on everyone in the team. For example:

  • Keep things clean -; hands, work surfaces, toys (if it’s a day nursery), keyboards.

– These areas attract a lot of germs;

  • Encourage staff to get some fresh air. – A few minutes outside may help or even a few minutes away from the potential sources of infection;
  • Remove the risks – If someone is in the office with a cold. Could they work from home if still well enough to work? If they work outdoors, ensure they have protective or other appropriate clothing.

2.    Muscular/skeletal pains

  • Make sure the workstation is properly set up. Do they have the right chairs for example? If they work from home are, they hunched over a laptop on the sofa? Carry out a workstation assessment.
  • Have they been trained to lift equipment and move people properly? A manual handling course is a good start.

3   Stress/anxiety

A recent Health and Wellbeing at work report by the CIPD in partnership with Simplyhealth found that ‘stress-related absence continues to increase among UK employees, with stress a main cause of both short- and long-term absence from work.’. Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.

  • Ensure reasonable workloads – There may be a short term need to up the ante as far as workloads go, perhaps to meet an urgent deadline. This expectation shouldn’t be ongoing. If you’ve restructured to save costs, don’t put two jobs worth of work onto one person.
  • Check your management style? Are you approachable, do you listen? Can you adapt your style? Your job is to create an environment for your staff that will get the job done well.
  • Have you dealt with any complaints? Unresolved workplace issues can cause stress
  • Flexible working options? – If some is struggling to manage some personal issues you could consider temporary variations to their working arrangements. It’s better that the staff are at work than not!

4.  Disability

There are a wide range of conditions both mental and physical that are treated as a disability for employment and Equality Act 2010 purposes. Employees with disabilities generally have more sickness absence than those without a disability.

  • Talk to your staff. You need to encourage your staff to tell you if they have a disability and discuss ways that would help them to thrive in the workplace.
  • Put in any reasonable adjustments. This is a legal requirement. Seek advice from an Occupational Health adviser and/or the GP in consultation with the individual concerned.
  • Record disability related sickness absence separately from other sickness absence. – This will help when it comes to the proactive management of sickness.

 

These baseline actions don’t need to be overly time consuming or costly. If you need help, get in touch with me and we will help you by preparing policies, drafting any staff communications, provide risk assessment training, organise occupational health advice.

 

Look out for Part 2 – Managing sickness absence – Getting a grip

Preventing People Problems

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