The Big Life Group Sickness Absence Report - April 2011 to March 2012 1. INTRODUCTION From April 2009, managers have been recording sickness on the HR Database in place of the paper based attendance records. The HR database allows managers to record absence data on a central web based system uploading dates and documentation. It allows the employee, line manager and HR to view all sickness records at a glance. CIPD national statistics in 2011 show that in the UK sickness absence costs employers directly, an average of 743 a year, in the non-profit sector for every worker employed includes occupational sick pay, statutory sick pay, cost of replacements, overtime costs, administration and cost of reduced performance. Indirect costs increase this figure further. Costs can be reduced dramatically if the organisation works in partnership with employees when managing sickness absence and return to work situations. The majority of organisations believe that it is possible to reduce absence. Absence and the Recession According to the CIPD, national statistics show that: Two thirds of working time lost to absence is accounted for by short term absences of up to seven days. A higher proportion of absence in the non-profit sector is due to long term absences of four weeks or longer. However, smaller organisations are more likely attribute a higher proportion of their absence to short term leave in comparison to larger organisations. Nearly two fifths of employers report that stress related absence has increased over the last year. The most significant work related causes of stress are: workloads, management style and organisational change/ restructuring. Non work causes are: relationships and family and relationships at work. Three fifths of organisations are taking steps to identify and reduce workplace stress. Popular methods to identify and reduce stress include: staff surveys, training for managers and improved work life balance via flexible working options. Almost all organisations had written absence management policies. Just over half have a target for reducing absence. The most common methods used to manage short term absence are: return to work interviews, trigger mechanisms to review attendance, provide line managers with absence information and disciplinary procedures for unacceptable absence. The most common methods used to manage long term absence are: return to work interviews, use of occupational health and providing line managers with sickness data. The majority of organisations believe that the Default Retirement Age (DRA) will have no impact on their absence levels. Organisations that had made, or were planning to make, redundancies were more likely to report an increase in mental health problems. 1
One-quarter of organisations report they have increased their spend on employee well-being and health promotion as a result of the economic context. Similar changes are anticipated in 2012. This report provides absence statistics for the period April 2011 March 2012 and looks back to previous years reports to make comparisons. 2. METHOD Managers keep a record of all sickness absence on the HR database. This includes dates and reason for absence. In addition, they are required to carry out return to work interviews for every period of sickness absence and upload records of interviews on the HR database. HR has access to all of these records centrally so that statistics on attendance can be produced. If necessary, the return to work forms and certification are passed onto Absence Managers. This enables them to assist managing employee absences which either reach the trigger points or where managers request staff to be entered into the absence management phase. This report has used the sickness records on the HR database, as uploaded by managers. 3. FINDINGS 3.1 NUMBER OF WORKING DAYS LOST OVER THE The total number of working days lost due to sickness during the year April 2011 March 2012 was 1060.9. In comparison to the previous year, this represents an increase of 148.9 days, signifying a 14% increase. This is based on 208 full time equivalent staff. NO. OF DAYS LOST PER 2011-2012 1060.9 2010-2011 912 2009-2010 1283 2008-2009 983.5 2007-2008 1502.5 2006-2007 2105 2005-2006 1608 2004-2005 1106 3.2 OVERALL RATE OF TIME LOST TO ABSENCE We can get a much clearer picture of absence levels across the organisation by calculating an overall rate of time lost. This will give us an indication of the severity of the problem. Number of Hours/Days Lost to Absence X 100 = 2.1% Total Number of Possible Working Hours/Days This means that 2.1% of working time was lost as a result of sickness absence. RATE OF WORKING TIME LOST 2011-2012 2.1% 2010-2011 2.5% 2009-2010 3.4% 2008-2009 2.8% 2
2007 2008 3.3% 2006-2007 4.1% 2005-2006 3.7% 2004-2005 2.3% Therefore, in comparison to figures from previous years this has continued the decreasing trend, however, in comparison to the previous year the percentage difference has decreased by 0.9% to 0.4%. The annual 2011 CIPD absence survey found that the average working time lost per year was 3.4% overall (unchanged from the previous year) and 3.9 % for voluntary, community and not for profit sector (a rise of 0.2% from the previous year). Nevertheless, the working time lost for The Big Life group remains below the national average. 3,3 AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS PER EMPLOYEE ACROSS THE ORGANISATION AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS PER EMPLOYEE 2011-2012 3.4 2010-2010 3.9 2009-2010 6.3 2008-2009 3.8 2007-2008 8.3 2006-2007 10.3 2005-2006 8.5 2004-2005 5 The average number of days sickness per employee this year was 3.4 days. This is a small decrease since last year, but continues the downward trend. It remains below the average figures provided by the 2011 CIPD Absence Survey of 7.7 days per employee and the nonprofit sector average of 8.8 days. 3,4 FREQUENCY RATE The statistics produced so far do not give us any indication of whether the overall rate of 2.1% is a result of a number of long-term absences or repeated short-term sick leave. Therefore, to give us a clearer picture it is helpful to look at the average number of spells of absence per employee. The average number of spells per employee was calculated as follows Number of Spells of Absence = 1.51 spells of absence per employee Number of Employees This figure tells us that on average each employee has had 1.51 spells of absence over this 12 month period. When compared to the previous year there has been a slight but not significant increase in the average number of spells per employee. AVERAGE NUMBER OF SPELLS PER EMPLOYEE 2011-2012 1.51 2010-2011 1.41 2009-2010 1.50 2008-2009 1.16 2007-2008 1.86 2006 2007 1.84 3
2005-2006 1.80 2004-2005 1.60 3.5 INCIDENCE (THE PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES ABSENT DURING THE ) The proportion of employees absent during the year is calculated as Number of Employees Having One or More Spells of Absence 109/248 X 100 = 44% Number of Employees Just over half of employees have experienced some absence due to sickness during 2011-2012 whilst just under a half have experienced no sickness during the year. PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES ABSENT DURING THE 2011-2012 44% 56% 2010-2011 57% 43% 2009-2010 67% 32% 2008-2009 52% 48% 2007-2008 75% 25% 2006-2007 67% 33% 2005-2006 76% 24% 2004-2005 61% 39% PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES HAVING NO ABSENCE The number of people having absence due to sickness has decreased by 11% and the decrease in overall time lost shows the majority of employees are having shorter periods of absence. 3.6 DISRUPTION Persistent short-term absence is generally more disruptive and expensive for organisations than occasional long-term absence. As a step towards dealing with this problem is to use a method called the Bradford Factor. It is calculated by: (No. of occasions of absence X No. of occasions of absence) X No. of days of absence = Bradford Score Therefore 1 employee with 14 days absence over the year could be distributed as follows: 1 occasion of absence of 14 days = 1 X 1 X 14 = a points score of 14 7 occasions of absence of 2 days each = 7 X 7 X 14 = a points score of 686 14 occasions of absence 1 day each = 14 X 14 X 14 = a points score of 2744 As in previous years it has become clear when studying the data that certain employees displayed patterns of persistent short-term absence. The highest score for the 20111-12 was 2688, compared to the highest score for 2010-11 which was 2299. 4
HIGHEST BRADFORD FACTOR SCORE HOW THIS SCORE WAS REACHED 2011-2012 2688 8 x 8 x 42 2010 2011 2299 11 x 11 x 19 2009-2010 5312 8 x 8 x 83 2008-2009 5243 7 x 7 x 107 2007 2008 2250 6 X 6 X 62.5 2006-2007 5650 10 X 10 X 56.5 2005-2006 2500 5 X 5 X 100 2004-2005 3552 8 X 8 X 55.5 Other high scores over the 2011-2012 period were as follows: Highest: 8 x 8 x 42 = 2688 Second highest: 5 x 5 x 99 = 2475 Third highest: 6 x 6 x 52 = 1872 Fourth highest: 8 x 8 x 24 = 1536 Fifth highest: 7 x 7 x 22 = 1078 The person with the highest score was absent due to recovering from an operation. 3.7 CAUSES OF ABSENCE Over the last 12 months (April 2011 March 2012) the most common causes of absence are recorded as stress related illness and stomach bugs (both 24 occasions). This was followed in second place by sickness and diarrhoea (22 occasions). The next most popular reasons were medical conditions (16 occasions), cold (14 occasions) and chest infections (13 occasions). This contrasts with the 2010 2011 findings where the most common reason had been cold/flu/virus (57 occasions) followed by sickness and diarrhoea (38 occasions). These findings bear some similarities to the 2011 CIPD Absence Survey findings, where minor illnesses such as stomach bugs, were found to be the most common cause of absence, followed by musculoskeletal problems and home or family responsibilities. Work related stress was reported as the fourth most common cause of sickness absence. It is also important to point out that we lost 190 days of working time where no reasons for absence were recorded. We can compare this to previous years below. INCIDENCES OF REASON FOR ABSENCE NOT RECORDED 2011-2012 55 (190 days) 2010-2011 59 (155 days) 2009-2010 52 (197.2 days) 2008-2009 73 (139.5 days) 2007-2008 47 (77.5 days) 2006 2007 38 (155 days) 2005-2006 81 2004-2005 67 This is concerning as all absence is now recorded on the HR Database, where it is easy to enter the reason for absence as the absence data is recorded on the system. Therefore, this possibly suggests that return to work interviews are not being completed. 5
Return to Work Interviews All managers are required to conduct a return to work interview with staff members after a period of absence has been undertaken. The HR Database shows that there are only 11% of RTW interviews completed for this period. This low figure is either due to the return to work interview not being completed or completed and not uploaded on to the HR Database. However, we can only go from the documents uploaded on to the HR Database as at 31 st March 2012. On auditing the RTW interviews completed against the dates inputted on the HR Database it showed that there is a mismatch of dates inputted on the HR Database and the dates recorded on the actual interview form. It is a concern that only 11% of Return to Work forms were completed or completed and not uploaded onto the system for this period. This issue should be resolved for the following period. For the period 2012 2013 the new HR database will send out reminders alerting managers to complete Return to Work forms. RETURN TO WORK INTERVIEW FORMS COMPLETE/INCOMPLETE Complete Incomplete Complete PERCENTAGE OF RETURN TO WORK FORMS Incomplete % % 2011-2012 34 268 11% 89% 2010-2011 145 198 42% 58% 3.8 ABSENCE MANAGEMENT FOCUS During this period we had 6 staff members in the absence management phase. Aisha BIITN BLE Open Door 33.3% 33.3% 16.7% 16.7% Reasons for Triggering Absence Management Short term Absence No. of Occasions Stress 5 Chest infection 3 Stomach bug sickness and diarrhoea 3 No reason 2 Menstrual problems 2 Dizziness 1 Headache 1 Vomiting 1 Tooth ache 1 Back pain 1 This shows that the most common cause of absence was stress followed by chest infections and stomach bugs. 6
Occupational Health Costs Only one person was referred to Occupational Health during this period at a cost of 180 from Big Life Centres 4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This year we have seen a decrease in sickness levels since last year s reported figures. It is important to point out that the majority of our absence figures are all below the national and regional averages reported by the CIPD. However, in order to maintain and improve absence levels, the following recommendations have been put forward: Managers to ensure reasons for absence are recorded accurately on the HR Database. Importantly, the new HR database will no longer allow absences to be recorded by managers without specifying reasons for the absence. Managers to ensure they carry out RTW interviews for every period of sickness and upload on to the HR database. Dates should match those inputted onto the database. The new HR database will send out automatic email reminders to prompt managers to carry out and complete the RTW interviews. Greater pro-activeness from Absence Managers to monitor and track staff when absence triggers are activated. The HR Manager will continue to work with SMT to monitor absence. The database features will improve and simplify the reporting of absence management statistics. Sickness Absence and Sick pay policies will continue to be reviewed in line with current practice and legislation and to link in with capability policy. AXA ICAS well-being helpline to continue to be promoted by line managers at RTW interviews. 7