It's enough to make you sick
30 July 2009
Publication: Municipal Journal
Absence through sickness in the public sector is costing the taxpayer around £4bn a year, according to a recent survey conducted by Benenden Healthcare and SOLACE.
On average, local authority employees take 13.5 days off every year on sick leave, compared with just less than eight days in the private sector. The survey found that absence could easily be cut by 20%, saving £800m a year of public money.
So why is this not happening?
The answer lies in the fact that the poll identified only 9% of senior managers regarded absence as a major issue they needed to tackle at director level. A total of 84% of councils surveyed left absence management to line and middle managers.
If this issue is not taken seriously at the top, why should it be taken seriously lower down the organisation?
Contrast this with when services are outsourced. The culture of the private sector provider is to focus on sickness levels as a major priority.
I recall that in one contract Capita won, the average sickness days of the incoming staff were 23 days a year. This level of absence, together with holiday entitlement of around 30 days, meant some members of staff were not in the office for 10 working weeks – that’s 20% of the year! This undoubtedly set a tone for the organisation. Once addressed, however, the team has subsequently gone on to become one of the top-performing teams within the group.
High sickness levels are symbolic of more significant and deeper, underlying issues. It is generally found where people feel under extreme stress, believe that they have poor leadership, or where they are working in poor office conditions, and this in turn leads to high turnover of staff.
For managers, therefore, it is vital to understand the root cause of the problem, and to act to resolve it speedily.
Staff off for long periods and having genuine physical or mental health problems need to receive the correct professional help. Significantly, therefore, the survey found that 63% of staff asked believed the help they received regarding their wellbeing was ineffective.
Equally, those taking a suspiciously-large number of single days off should be brought to account.
A failure to do so has a real effect on the morale of people around those who are absent – the very people who have to pick up the work not being done, as well as dealing with their own workload.
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