Employee Wellbeing

Employee ill health and absence is a major drain on the UK's productivity.

In response to this many organisations are setting up initiative's to improve both the physical and mental wellbeing of staff. Investment ranges from provision of gym facilities in order to help employees get fit to training managers to deal with situations such as work related stress and the introduction of flexible working patterns to aid staff retention.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI, 2010) latest research shows that the average annual cost of absence to business is about £517 per employee. To back up this research the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) estimates that conditions such as mental ill health alone – including stress and anxiety, cost business in the UK £28.3bn per year and contribute toward the loss of 13.7 working days.

This therefore suggest that employee ill-health is a vast drain on the productivity of British businesses. The downside is though with the economy edging out of recession and continuing to face economic uncertainty, many companies could be forgiven for taking the view that investing in initiatives to retain staff is simply unaffordable – this view could be deemed as being misguided.

Examples of companies can get a return for investing in employee wellbeing are demonstrated as follows: the national director of British Action on Homelessness (BOAH) suggests that for every £1 invested in wellbeing initiatives businesses can potentially see a return of £3. The benefits of such schemes can take the form of reduced absence rates, lower staff turnover and potentially improved productivity. One such scheme as introduced by BUPA is flexible working to boost staff retention – which has proved a success. Other such schemes are smoking cessation courses or free gym membership.

A focus on diet and physical health can also go some way towards preventing absences but a lot of companies have also changed the way they focus and deal with absences when they occur, by minimising the impact of sickness and to get staff fit and working as quickly as possible.

Utilising a well renown occupational health services such as John Munroe Health Support Services can assist companies to do exactly that, the sooner companies start with an intervention like having a occupational health nurse visit the individual the sooner it will have a positive impact.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence says that by following its guidelines which includes ' strategy, assessing opportunities for promoting mental wellbeing and managing risk, flexible working, the role of line managers, and supporting micro, small and medium-sized businesses' on average a company of a 1000 staff could save £250,000 per year through reduced absenteeism and productivity.

One of the most important factors when dealing with stress is the role of line managers and their ability to help their workers deal with or avoid it as most evidence points to the fact that most workers don't leave their job they in fact leave their line managers.

One recent initiative is the replacement of the traditional sick notes with 'Statements of Fitness for Work' or more commonly called 'fit notes'. Sick notes have been used by medical professionals for decades in order to provide employers with details of their employees' health problems – including details of how long they are expected to be off from work.

But Dame Carol Black's review (see industry news) of employee health in Britain concluded that sick notes were too inflexible as they simply concentrate on what employees could not do rather than what they could.

Fit notes allow doctors to tell employees what tasks workers are able to carry out despite any incapacity or if any adjustments must be made to their workplace before they can return. This new system encourages GP's to talk to their patients about phased returns to work, altered hours of working and possible change in duties to ensure that employees spend less time away from work as possible. A good occupational health services advisor can assess the employee alongside the GP in suggesting when the employee can return to work and what they are able to undertake.

For more information on how the John Munroe Health Support Services occupational health services can advise your organisation please contact us on 0844 504 5800.