espite the introduction of flexitime and better management throughout many
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organisations, the amount of time taken off sick is still costing the UK economy Ei3bn a year, according to a recent survey published by the Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD). This amounts to £500 for each employee, or around 4% of the total working time. One of the survey's findings which the press made much of is that the average worker takes three sick days off a year when he is perfectly healthy, representing a cost to industry of more than L4bn a year.
The IPD studied 1,700 organisations employing two million staff, and found that the most common reason given for absence was minor ailments like colds and headaches. The second most cited reason was stress, and for manual workers it was back pain. But human resource managers said that 34% of 'sickness' was not the result of ill health. IPD advisor Diane Sinclair says: "With around one sick leave day in every three being taken for reasons other than illness, employers clearly need to focus on people management and development strategies to tackle absence."
Persistent absenteeism and malingering is one of the most serious employment-related issues faced by businesses in the haulage industry. The average level of sickness in the transport, storage and communications sectors is 4.3%, compared with an average across all industries of 4.1%. Transport & General Workers Union spokesman Andrew Dobson says the findings of the IPD survey have underlined a problem that the union receives many inquiries about. "We are going to collate figures on absence ourselves," he says. "A pos
sible explanation is that stress levels have mounted. This leads to high levels of sickness. Implementing the Working Time Directive should alleviate this to an extent, but you get good and bad employers. Some use flexible working practices and make sure their drivers get proper rest and some don't"
The survey gives a mean level of sickness absence for a sample that comprises a high number of large organisations. Half of the respondents have a workforce of 5oo or more employees. For companies with ioo or fewer employees, the level falls to 2%. This general picture seems to be reflected in the haulage industry. Hazel Bale, director of Bale Tanker Hire, of Aylesbeare, near Exeter in Devon, says absences within her company are quite rare. "The company has around 20 drivers and I'd like to think that they're all happy and earning good money," she says. "In fact, we
have had drivers who have been ill, but have insisted on working." Hazel puts her clean bill of health down to the "give and take" style of management that she and her husband Tony Bale have adopted in running the company.
Jeremy Robbins, transport manager at Leamington Spa-based C&W Knight, has never had a problem with non-attendance and says this has much to do with the company being small and family-owned. "I think these problems emerge when staff become numbers rather than people," he adds.
For Rebecca Davies, commercial director of AK Worthington in Manchester, it is a very different story. Davies says she has lost 146 days through illness-related absence since the beginning of January. The company employs 8o drivers, and when one is off sick, it has to use an expensive agency driver to fill in or risk losing a valuable client.
Davies believes that at least a third of those absences were not genuine, but how does she distinguish between the malingerer and the genuinely sick employee? "Well most of the time it's a Monday," she explains dryly. "They'll ring in and say they've got a bad stomach or a headache, but basically they've had a night on the pop and they're too drunk to turn up at four in the morning ancl start their shift."
Is she sure they're not under stress? "We've had one or two cases of stress, but they don't give it as a reason for absence. It's usually food poisoning or something like that," she reports. "No-one complains about the hours they work, or about the job itself—we buy the highest spec cabs we can so they're very comfortable. And we give proper training for loading and unloading, so they shouldn't hurt themselves in any way. We don't get any workrelated injuries."
The I PD's Sinclair believes this is a superficial attitude to the problem: "We did ask about drink and drugs, and for manual workers only 2% of respondents said that this was one of the top five reasons for absence. It really doesn't feature. This is an over-simplification of the issue."
Worthington tried to combat absenteeism 18 months ago, with a i35 bonus for every full week worked by an employee. According to Davies, this has helped get people into work, but the company still has a high number of no-shows every Monday. "I don't understand it," says Davies. "They don't get paid if they're off sick, and they lose the i35, but it doesn't deter them."
"Bonuses only treat the symptoms and not the cause," says Sinclair "It may be possible to introduce more flexibility within the working week." But this is not possible for many employers, who have to do enough juggling with hours around the tachograph laws as it is. Rebecca Davies believes that her company has done all it can to stop malingering. "There's nothing more we can do," she says. "Drivers are hard to get, so the swing of power is in their favour. We offer a good package but there's a skill shortage in the industry and we've got lots of local competition."
Jayne Gooch, head of personnel management at business advisors Grant Thornton, says there are still ways in which AK Worthington could improve its absence management.
She recommends a series of measures to help those genuinely ill but deter the serial skivers: "In the first instance you should demonstrate to staff that you take health matters seriously. Support national initiatives such as Flu Awareness
Week (25-29 October) and National Stress
Awareness Day (3 November) by displaying posters and informing staff of the precautions they can take against such ailments. Secondly, where staff have been absent, you CAW KNIGHT :No trouble at family firm. BALE TANKERS: 'Give and take' management.
should conduct a
semi-formal return-to-work interview. This enables you to determine if the employee is fit enough to return to work. But it also provides an opportunity to establish other things, such as whether the absence was justified, whether the employee did everything he could to return to work and whether he is likely to need more time off It also acts as deterrents to those who are tempted to be absent for reasons other than genuine sickness. Managers should be trained to carry out return-to-work interviews and should understand question and listening tactics."
The IP D survey found that return-to-work interviews were by far the most effective way of managing short-term sickness absence. Other approaches found to be effective included restriction of company pay; on-going monitoring of absences; disciplinary procedures for non-genuine cases; and the involvement of a company doctor.
Well-written, flexible sickness procedures can provide a mechanism for ownermanagers to have greater control over nonattendance. But Hazel Bale's casual "give and take" spirit is more likely to work at the root of the problem. "Direct approaches such as return-to-work interviews and proper record keeping are important," says Sinclair, "but there is a lot more that managers can do to stop absenteeism. People are not motivated. They cannot be open about family responsibilities." About 25% of employers in the IPD survey ranked "home/family responsibilities" as one of the five main causes of "sickness" absence for manual workers. "Restricting sick pay is one way of dealing with it," Sinclair concludes, "but you should have a more open and honest culture. Treat employees as adults."