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July 8, 2014

UK business needs to realise the cost of employee absence – and the best way to tackle it

 

Rosie Hewitt Rehabilitation Manager QBE European Operations

Employee absence costs the UK economy a staggering £14 billion in 2012, according to a CBI report published last year.

Some absence due to minor illness or injury is inevitable. For the most part, it can be managed through a common sense approach to self-treatment. Other illnesses or injuries, however, benefit from some form of rehabilitation intervention. The key is to ensure that those employees who need support services can access them quickly.

Early intervention dramatically improves return to work rates (RTW), but requires an in-depth understanding among HR professionals about the services their employees can access, their role in supporting returning employees and the critical part they have to play in ensuring absence management best practice in their organisation.

Too often businesses do not appreciate the impact improving RTW rates can have on their bottom line and the onus is on HR professionals to make the case for investment in this area. To do that HR professionals must have a solid grasp of the volume, nature and trend of employee absence within their organisation so that they can demonstrate where savings can be made and what additional investment, if any, is required to achieve these.

Reducing the cost of absence for an organisation does not necessarily equate to increased spending however. Smarter use of existing services, better visibility of absence trends and the involvement of HR professionals in the purchase of Employers’ Liability insurance can have a huge impact.

72 per cent did not know the average daily cost of employee absence and 62 per cent were not aware of on-going employers’ liability claims within their organisation

The lack of awareness of the cost of absence is surprising and one can only assume

it is hindering best practice within the organisations surveyed.  Keeping employees at work  and helping them to return as soon as possible after an absence can help maintain their health and wellbeing while also maximising productivity, which in the current recovering economy, is something all businesses need to be mindful of.

Click here to download QBE’s Understanding the cost of employee absence report

 

 

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