Irrespective of whether you wish us to provide
your Occupational Health, you have your own internal
provision, or you use another third party provider,
Absence Line will help to ensure that you get the
most out of what is inevitably an expensive resource.
Possibly the most important single factor for
Occupational Health when dealing with absence,
is timely intervention. In the increasingly changing
world companies and government agencies operate
within, absence can have a critical effect on performance
and budget management. Effective Occupational Health
input at an early stage, can provide management
with the information necessary to minimise any
potential losses cost effectively. Too many organisations
leave the responsibility for referring employees
to Occupational Health to the line managers. This
can lead to an inconsistent approach, where some
managers will refer most absentees, and others
will refer only those who have been absent for
several weeks. Trigger points for referral to Occupational
Health should be detailed in your absence policy.
These trigger points be built into the system,
and referrals will then
be generated automatically.
Our experience also shows
that often Occupational Health staff do not have
the correct information
when carrying out an absence related referral.
Absence Line categorises absence according to a
standard list of illnesses compiled by the government.
This list was designed to give the right level
of information to Occupational Health to enable
them to carry out effective referrals.
The standard referral documentation includes
a list of all previous absences logged onto the
system. This has a further benefit in that it allows
a medical professional to identify any relationship
between the absences which may not be apparent
to non-medical personnel.
Having an Occupational Health opinion of a complete
and detailed absence record is always crucial if
disciplinary action is to be taken on absence.
This will prove that you have investigated all
options and reasons for absence before the start
of disciplinary proceedings, making them more defensible
should they progress to tribunal.
Trends in absence can also
be used to identify work process problems. An
example of this would
be one work area or work type showing steady rise
in back and neck problems over an extended period
of time. After identifying such a trend there is
often a requirement for either work place assessments
or Occupational Hygiene recordings to be carried
out. These can help to identify any areas that
may need further assessment (such as ergonomic
investigations) or to enable employers to be certain
that the figures represent a statistical anomaly.
Examples of some of the statistical reports that
Absence Line can provide can be found here
