HR Pulse

The relationship between sick absence management and wellness strategies

Health care intervention is only a limited element of productivity management.  Sick absence management addresses a much bigger picture while making health-care services work for employers. 

During sick absence reporting and management, we have found that:

• Opportunistic sick leave, which is often dealt with outside of health services; and,
  
  
• Real health issues where benefits are drawn from health services. However, both aspects require management in the sphere of labour legislation, which is a fundamental aspect of sick absence and incapacity management.

Sick absence management processes take into account and use all existing company health-care infrastructure and in fact focus on making the most of existing health-care services.

There is actually an increase in the take up of EAP and health-care services with the implementation of a sophisticated sick absence management system. This is because sophisticated sick absence reporting serves as a tool to identify vulnerable individuals. It flags individuals and feeds them into the appropriate service offerings.  Often, these individuals would go unnoticed given the subtlety of many health conditions.

Consequently, there could probably be  a wide-reaching approach to health-care problems, producing a much healthier organisation in the long term because of early, proactive identification of what would usually be hidden health risks. 

Absence systems’ capabilities allow interfacing with existing health services and forwarding of relevant referral information to specific programs.  The reporting system serves as a ‘measure’ of the effectiveness of health services. No change in sick leave patterns or performance often indicates failure of the given interventions.  This in turn allows for early referral to pension /provident and disability funds, and reduces employment costs for the company.  On a global level, reducing sick absence rates indicates health programmes and services are successful.

Part of the sick absence management approach places focus around the employer’s obligations to accommodate, and assist, in terms of labour legislation. A huge degree of focus is given, in terms of advice and guidance, where real health issues impact on an individual’s ability to perform a job effectively.  That is, the health service provider deals with the diagnosis and treatment while the absence manager deals with this in the context of the individual’s ability to perform his job within the company. 

Familiar health conditions identified in the course of sick absence management are those such as stress and depression.  Often, these diagnoses go unnoticed and can develop into chronic illness impacting greatly on productivity.  Typically, these diagnoses will be picked up by the sick absence management consultant and the individual will be referred to the company EAP program for proactive and early management.  

So, we see that there is an integral relationship between absence management and wellness services:  Absence management is the basic measurement of the effectiveness of wellness services, and also assists in identifying employees requiring interventions.