HR Industry News

New taskforce to tackle sickness absence

— 22 June 2007 —

A new initiative launched by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) aims to address the 175 million working days lost due to sickness absence each year that are estimated to cost businesses £13bn a year.

The DWP has put together a taskforce made up of representatives from the government, businesses and the insurance industry to identify what services already exist to help ill or injured people back to work and what business could be doing to provide more support.

The group is part of the government’s Health, Work and Well-being strategy that brings together MPs, employers and healthcare professionals.

Lord McKenzie, DWP Minister said that very few employers offer occupational health or vocational rehabilitation and that the taskforce will identify the reasons for this, what barriers are preventing wider provision and what needs to be done to change the situation.

Ceridian's Paul Avis added, “I believe that we are beyond the analysis stage and the DWP should be looking to evidence-base different systems to reduce sickness absence rather than to try and gain further ideas. However, there is some great practice in the commercial world with employers reducing absence rates from 5% to 0.5% within 6 months and others sustaining less than 1% absence rates over a 2 year period so where employers take the plunge and invest to save there is limitless ROI. It is only a shame that so few have such foresight!”

One million people take sick leave every week and 3,000 of these will not return within six months. More alarmingly, 2,500 will still be on incapacity benefit five years later, according to Lord McKenzie.

Lord McKenzie added that rehabilitation is not about forcing people back to work. Often, work can be a crucial step in helping people return to full health and businesses have much to gain in terms of reduced sickness absence and improved staff engagement and retention.

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