What Works in Attendance Management

1
What Works in Attendance Management ?

• Nerys Williams
• Medical Policy Advisor
• Corporate Medical Group
• Department for Work and Pensions
• London
• Nottingham 13th October 2005

2
Extent of the Problem

• Sickness absence accounts for 4 of working time,
  equivalent to 8.4 days for each employee each
  year
• Average cost is 601 per employee per year
• One of top 3 concerns of HR professionals
• 50 of organisations use OH to help manage short
  term absence, 66 use OH for long term absence
• CIPD 2005 absence management 2005 a survey of
  policy and practice. Survey Report. London
  www.cipd.co.uk

3
Extent of the Problem

• Highest absence levels in food, drink tobacco and
  transport
• Lowest in consultancy, IT, media and publishing,
  agriculture and forestry.
• Minor illness is the commonest cause for time
  off, second commonest is stress (non-manual) and
  back pain (manual)
• Trends
• CIPD Employee Absence 2004 reported average 9.1
  days off and costs 588 per employee.
• Press release quote the most effective
  intervention for managing long term absence is
  the involvement of OH professionals (60)

4
Extent of the Problem

• 40m working days lost as a result of work related
  illness or injury in 2001-2 but this is only a
  small proportion of all sick absence HSE
  2000-2002
• On any one day 2 of population of working age
  absent for health reasons LFS 2001
• The number of people off work because of a health
  condition or disability declines with the length
  of sickness absence
• CIPD, CBI ,EEF 2004 (figs vary but message
  the same)

5
Extent of the Problem (DWP perspective)

• 1 million people report sick every week
• 3000 remain off at 6 months
• 2,400 of these will not work again in the next 5
  years
• 2.7 million people claiming a state incapacity
  benefit
• DWP Analytical Services 2005

6
Variations in measurement

• ACAS (lost time rate total absence in the
  period/ possible total time in the period) X100
• ACAS Absence and labour turnover.
  London. ACAS 2003
• NAO office no common definition of sickness
  absence, the 15 NHS trusts in Wales have been
  using at least 6 different definitions to
  calculate their levels of sickness absence,
  restricting the extent to what they can compare
  their relative performance
• The Management of Sickness Absence by NHS
  Trusts in Wales. NAO.2004

7
Costs

• Absence costs as of salary bill
• Law firm 1.8
• Insurance co 4.7
• Med retail store 6.8
• Financial svs co. 7.8
• Local authority 8.2
• Large retail store 16.4

8
Evidence

• Anne Spurgeon (IOH) evidence based review
• Anderson K and Norlund A.
• Individuals having the opportunity to influence
  their work situation
• For back and neck problems better work
  satisfaction
• Both have a moderate level of scientific
  evidence
• Scand J Public Health Alexanderson K and Norlund
  A. Sickness absence, causes, consequences and
  physicians certification practice. A systematic
  literature review by the Swedish Council on
  Technology Assessment in Health Care. October
  2004.
• 3. BOHRF Common mental health conditions

9
Evidence

• BOHRF Common mental health conditions
• Prevention
• stress management interventions to give skills
  but benefit unclear
• Retention
• individual approaches most likely to be
  effective for high risk jobs or individuals (but
  need to be targeted and applied correctly)
• Rehabilitation
• Brief intervention (lt8 weeks) of individual
  therapy especially CBT. Computer or face-to-face
  (only short term benefits studied)

10
Evidence

• BOHRF Common mental health conditions
• Recommendations for Practice
• Short courses of CBT available
• Course of 4-5 sessions of CBT enhance coping
  skills
• Supervisors should keep in touch with employees
  at least once very two weeks

11
Summary

• Policy
• Ownership
• Early intervention
• Support
• Bio psychosocial approach not just the medical
  model) with active management and intervention
  (KIT, RTW, case management)
• Evaluation and costing

12
Further resources

• HSE/TUC guide on how reps can work with employers
  on sickness absence www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence
  
• HSE Prototype Sickness Absence Recording Tool
• EEF Managing long term sickness absence and
  rehabilitation (EEF/IRS survey) tel no 0207 222
  7777
• CIPD role of an OH service www.cipd.co.uk
• BOHRF guidelines for common mental health
  conditions www.bohrf.org.uk
• Institute of Employment Studies
  www.employment-studies.co.uk
• DWP (desk aids, updates, hot topics)
  www.dwp.gov.uk/medical