Employers have found it increasingly difficult to measure the impact of staff sickness since the onset of Covid-19, with furloughing and working from home both masking sickness absence.
New figures from Group Risk Development highlight these difficulties. Grid says that while 85 per cent of firms record employee absence, only 63 per cent measure the impact of this absence on their business.
Of these if found four out of five says it had become more difficult to record this impact following Covid-19.
Of those businesses who do understand the benefits of documenting the impact of staff sickness, recording the number of lost hours or days was the favoured method (44 per cent), followed by calculating the cost of sick pay provision – e.g. Statutory Sick Pay and salary costs (40 per cent).
Other practices included analysing the cost of lost productivity (36 per cent), analysing direct costs such as for temporary staff and agency fees (33 per cent), and indirect costs — such as colleagues covering work, learning time, management time (33 per cent).
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for Grid says: “The options, preferences, and levels of sophistication in recording absences will always vary from business to business. For example, it’s much easier to record lost productivity in a production line than it is in a service-based industry.
“However, it’s absolutely vital for all employers to record and analyse their absence data because it enables the employer to trigger a response for employees, such as early intervention support. We know that the longer an individual is off work, the more difficult it can be for them to return which can be hugely disruptive to the employer and their business.”
She points out that group risk products can offer comprehensive support, via employee assistance programmes and other embedded wellbeing services. Additionally, such benefits can provide ‘in-the-moment’ support for issues such as dealing with debt, consumer issues, neighbour disputes, relationship issues etc. before they escalate and cause an employee to take time off work.
When an employee is off sick, early intervention can begin on day one of absence, or even before. Moxham says this fast access to help is important in enabling better outcomes, and also saves employers money by not having to find and fund this help directly.
She says group risk insurers’ commitment to offering support for intervention is demonstrated in the fact that some are now offering early-intervention bonuses or cashback on policy premiums for employers who are efficient in alerting them to absences.