Sickness absence rates increase

The proportion of organisations now focusing on employee well-being as a means of tackling increasing absence levels and costs has soared over the last year, according to a new survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The CIPD annual Absence Management survey of more than 800 organisations, reveals employee well-being has recently climbed up many corporate agendas as a critical area of action, with 42% of organisations saying they have implemented a well-being strategy compared to just 26% for the previous year. The increased interest in providing employee wellbeing support among employers accompanied by an increase in the average annual level of absence, which climbed to 8.4 days per employee a year, from 8 days for the previous 12 months. There was also a significant increase in stress at work with a positive net balance of 31% of employers reporting an increase in stress-related absence. The survey findings indicate that 60% of organisations in the public sector now have a well-being strategy compared to 42% last year with also a dramatic increase in the private services sector (37%) compared to 22% for the previous year. On average, organisations spend 5.4% of their paybill on employee well-being benefits and 42% of organisations indicate that this will increase further during 2008. Despite the investment being made in this area, only 13% of organisations evaluate the effectiveness of their well-being initiatives. Ongoing investment may be hard to justify if budgets come under pressure unless there is evidence that employee well-being initiatives provide real return on investment. The survey also highlights that poor internal communication of the benefits being provided to staff means that often the investment made by employers in this area is not appreciated. Just 11% of employers believe their employees fully appreciate the well-being benefit spend, with two-fifths (40%) saying poor internal communication is the main reason for this. Ben Willmott, pictured, the CIPD employee relations adviser says: “The report shows employers are increasingly recognising the benefits that can be gained by supporting employee well-being. “It is becoming more and more evident that organisations are starting to manage employee health rather than sickness, not as a standalone well-being strategy but as an integral part of an overall well-being programme. As organisations increasingly face the costs and risks of long-term absence, damaging their productivity, growth, retention and brand, businesses are increasingly under pressure to address the well-being agenda. “However attempts to promote employee wellbeing and manage absence will be fatally undermined unless they are underpinned by good people management and effective work organisation. There is no point providing healthy eating options and on-site gyms if people are dreading going to work because of their bullying line manager or because of their excessive workload. “ Well-being initiatives include: Almost half of organisations provide all employees with access to counselling services as part of their well-being initiative. This is followed by employee assistance programmes (31%) and ‘stop smoking’ support (31%). Around quarter of employers also provide health screening, healthy canteen options and subsidised gym membership to all employees.