Absence Management Case Studies
Understanding and managing workforce abscence trends improves the health of your business.Westlakes Scientific Consulting (WSC) offers an integrated and holistic approach to the recording, monitoring, case management and reporting of your sickness absence levels.
The cost of sickness absence to UK business continues to grow - £11.8bn in 2001. The direct cost of absence per employee, has risen to an average of £476 per year. Research has identified that when organisations take responsibility at a senior level for managing absenteeism, significant reductions can be achieved. The Westlakes Web Application for sickness absence management, will provide you with the information you need to understand your organisation’s absence experience and help you to manage absence in an effective and efficient manner.
Case Study
The customer: An industrial client in South West Scotland with over 500 employees Key issues the client was having included:
- Delays in notification of absence information from line managers to case management team for action
- Limited monitoring/audit of compliance with absence management processes
- Long Term Sickness (LTS) a significant problem
- Requirement to be able to record and monitor OH case management actions and demonstrate tangible benefits of case management intervention
The Solution
We worked with the client to introduce icaseone capability for line managers. This included the use of automated notification of absence triggers to line managers for action and the use of automated reports to HR and OH case management teams to notify instances of non compliance with absence management processes and outstanding actions Case managers use icaseone to record and monitor progress throughout the period of absence and rehabilitation process. It is an essential requirement for this client that they be able to monitor case management actions and demonstrate tangible benefits
Case Study Results
Between 2007 and 2008 direct absence costs reduced by £135K
Results between 2007 and 2008
- % working time lost reduced from 3.7% to 2.4%
- Total number of working days lost decreased by 909
- Total number of episodes increased by 75 however the average length of an episode fell from 11.2 to 6.7 days
- Long term sick (>20 working days) episodes decreased from 47 to 31
- LTS accounted for 5.9 dpe from the 12 month rolling total of 8.5 dpe in 2007 this decreased to 3.5dpe from the 12 month rolling total of 6.8 dpe in 2008
- Absences attributed to Diseases of musculoskeletal and connective tissues were the top cause of absence in 2007 with 44 episodes and an average duration of 18 days. In 2008 this fell into third place with 39 episodes and an average duration of 9.2 days
- The number of recorded case management interactions increased from 127 to 394
- In period January 2007 there were 8 employees classified as LTS this has decreased to 3 employees in 2008
- Between 2007 and 2008 direct absence costs reduced by £135K