16 December 2004 - Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilots: Employers' management of long term sickness absence
A research report published today by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of research carried out by the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York and the National Centre for Social Research provides findings on how employers in the Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilot (JRRP) areas manage sickness absence.
The purpose of this research was to develop a better understanding of what employers in JRRP areas do to manage absence and what services they currently provide to absent employees to help them return to work. The research also set out to assist in the development of the DWP Framework for Vocational Rehabilitation, launched at the end of October.
Interviews were conducted with 53 representatives with differing roles in 22 public, private and voluntary sector organisations in four geographical areas.
The main findings are:
- Most employers wanted to reduce absence rates and retain their staff, saying absence had a detrimental effect on staff morale and productivity. Employers also mentioned the negative impact on the effectiveness of their business and customer service. Costs reported included lost productivity, sick pay and replacement staff.
- Long term absences were defined as anything between 10 days and four weeks. Short and long-term absence were perceived and handled differently by employers. Short-term absences were often viewed suspiciously and could be dealt with punitively. When chief responsibility for dealing with longer-term absences lay with line managers they sometimes reported lacking the time or skills for this role; when Human Resources (HR) or Occupational Health staff were available to support and advise them line managers felt this helped with the task.
- While not all organisations had a formal policy for keeping in touch with absent employees, for those that did several approaches emerged: calling employees into the workplace, home visits (or a combination of the two). Home visits were viewed as good practice, and were an opportunity to keep in touch on work matters, sick pay and the health of the employee.
- Employers were generally willing to adjust employees’ work to help them return to the workplace after an absence. This included altering or reducing working hours, changing tasks, adapting equipment and the place of work, phased returns and redeployment to other jobs when there were vacancies.
- Awareness of external services was greatest amongst HR staff. Health services such as physiotherapy, MRI scans and sessions with chiropractors were purchased as individual need arose. Public services (such as Jobcentre Plus Disability Services) were valued for their advice and specialist knowledge, but could frustrate employers when services were slow or inconsistent.
Conclusions
Employers’ keenness to retain employees who were on long term sickness absence can be seen in their willingness to make changes to help employees return to work. Almost all employers interviewed allowed employees to return to work on reduced hours to ease their return, gradually building up the number of hours worked over time.
Respondents felt that improvements to existing services could help them to manage long-term sickness absence more effectively. Improvements suggested included better communication between employers and the health service and an enhanced role for GPs; faster access to medical treatment; and greater responsiveness to employees’ needs as well as the needs of the employer in rehabilitating employees specifically for work.
Human Resource staff possessed greater awareness of external guidance on managing absence and of external services. Good practice guidance on managing sickness absence was used in particular circumstances, such as when there was a need to update existing, or formulate new, policy. There were calls for external guidance to be tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of individual organisations.
Notes for editors
- “Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilot: Employers’ Management of Long Term Sickness Absence” by Katharine Nice and Patricia Thornton of the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, is published today in the DWP Research Report Series: report number 227. A summary and copy of the report are available on the DWP website www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2003-2004/rrep227.asp
- The Job Retention and Rehabilitation Pilot (JRRP) is designed to test the relative net impact of the early intervention of a person centred case management approach that both eases and boosts individual access to heath care and/or workplace focused help on return to work and job retention for the employed and self employed. Those included in the pilot are at risk of job loss because they have been absent from work because of ill health, injury or disability for between 6 and 26 weeks. Four organisations independent of DWP have been delivering the pilot in six locations (Glasgow, Tyneside, Teeside, Sheffield, Birmingham and West Kent) in the UK.
- The Framework for Vocational Rehabilitation (FVR) seeks to establish a working definition of vocational rehabilitation (VR). To achieve this there will be work to ensure Government initiatives complement one another. A Vocational Rehabilitation Steering Group will also be established to involve stakeholders, as will a Research Working Group and a Standards and Accreditation Working Group. New guidance and additional tools to aid stakeholders will be developed, and issues raised by stakeholders will be considered in the development of a new approach to VR.
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