Guest blog for Occupational Health Awareness Week 2023 - by Victoria Field, SME business director for PAM OH
Access to occupational health can reduce sickness absence and staff replacement costs. Record numbers of employees are absent from work, with one person now long-term sick for every 14 people in work, costing the government an additional £16bn a year in benefits. It is also costing employers. Employees who could have been helped to stay healthy are becoming too sick to work, reducing their chances of ever returning. In response, the government is backing OH. So, what is occupational health and how can it boost business profits?
1. Stop people from going absent
Occupational health (OH) allows employees who are struggling with a health issue to be supported to stay in work. A clinician will review the underlying issues hindering the person’s ability to attend or perform at work and provide advice on ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help them manage their condition to stay in work. If the individual also needs treatment, recommendations on what’s needed are provided.
The sooner employees are provided with OH, the less likely they are to go absent and the more likely they are to recover. The Benefits of Early Intervention report found that two thirds of absence could be prevented if employees were referred into OH before they became too sick to work. 91% of people referred into OH while they were still in work were expected to be in work one month later, compared to just 45% of those referred between one to two months of absence and 27% of those who had been off for over six months.
To help people stay in work, employers such as NTW Solutions, adopt a proactive approach. “Instead of waiting for staff to call in sick, we support them at the earliest niggle,” says Victoria Bullerwell, director of workforce and engagement. “At the first sign of back pain, our cleaning staff are referred into physio and given exercises and reasonable adjustments, such as a break from hoovering, so they can continue to work while they recover. That’s helped us to significantly reduce sickness absence and generate substantial cost savings.”
2. Utilise government subsidies
Proposed new government subsidies will make it more affordable for small and medium business to cover the cost of providing employees with access to OH. The cost of referring the employee to OH will be reduced to just 20% of the usual cost, with the supplier reclaiming the other 80% from government. Managers raise the OH referral, so they can give context on the employee’s role and workplace and what they’re struggling to do. This allows OH to provide practical and actionable recommendations on how best to support them. If the employee is left to struggle and their condition becomes entrenched, additional OH services might also be required. For example, physiotherapy and mental health helplines provide immediate access to treatment that would take months to access otherwise.
3. Reduce staff replacement costs
Health conditions, ranging from depression to menopause to cancer and heart disease, now affect one in four employees. Yet a third of these are reluctant to tell their employer, meaning 8% of employees are not getting the support they need to stay in work. Left unsupported, many of these individuals will slide into long-term absence, even though simple adjustments or cost-effective treatments can allow them to remain in work.
For example, paying for an employee struggling with anxiety to have a short course of CBT, to learn how to reduce symptoms, typically costs less then replacing them and having to train up someone new. While allowing someone with reduced immunity, such as due to cancer medication, to reduce their exposure to others by working from home, or starting work later to avoid crowds during rush hour, can allow them to safely remain in work.
Research from a Health at Work report also shows that one in two employees who are given proactive help to stay healthy are less likely to want to work elsewhere, compared to just one in twenty of those employees given little or no support. Almost half of the most supported employees also said they felt very productive at work, compared to just one in ten of the least supported. This shows the value of OH for not only reducing absence, but also boosting employee loyalty and productivity.
Victoria Field is SME business director for PAM OH, which provides proactive occupational health services to millions of employees across the UK.