Seven out of ten people who were unable to work due to stress returned to work before the end of the deferred period in the last year, according to Legal & General.
The company’s analysis of its internal claims data revealed that, typically, staff are returning in under six months, representing an encouraging increase. Fewer than four out of ten were able to return to work within the same period five years ago.
The research follows the Department for Work and Pensions’ recent Sickness Absence Review, which recognised the impact that early intervention can have in reducing absence. The Government is currently considering the recommendations of the Review, which includes offering tax relief for products that provide employees with specialist health intervention.
Legal & General says its Group Income Protection, Workplace Recovery has been successful inreducing absence, partly owing to its specialist early intervention. Diane Buckley, managing director of Group Protection at Legal & General, said: “Stress is one of the leading causes of long-term absence, so employers should ensure that good quality support is available in the workplace. Our success in returning seven out of ten stress claimants back to work demonstrates the impact our specialist intervention can have.”
Stress is Britain’s leading cause of long-term absence, according to a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) absence management survey, which stated that for non-manual workers, stress is the second biggest cause of short-term absence and the leading cause of long-term absence in the workplace.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
DWP’s sickness absence reveiw – don’t make me laugh! If the recent Gov’t plans to get rid of people easier go through, the ‘early intervention’ for stress becomes simple for many companies – ‘just sack em!’
Genuine employee care systems help wether stressed by work or non-work sources!
However, simply treating your employees with respect & dignity -looking after them, talking & listening to them, helps to stop them being stressed in the first place – ergo – no time off – just do the sums!
Commendable achievement, however, would early intervention not be better used by adopting adequate support to prevent the stress in the first place?
I cannot see how a cost benefit analysis proves otherwise?
Sick pay plus potential agency costs to repalce absence, plus specialist intervention post stress = £????
And how do you ensure non repetition of the events leading to the initial stress without more cost being incurred?