Chris,
You make a good case for preventative actions, but unfortunately sickness absence is a much more complex phenomena, and of the long list of factors that affect rates of absence 'health' is only one (and often not the main one). Management style, industrial relations, even climate and journey time to work has been shown to affect rates of sickness absence in the published literature, so trying to tackle absence through 'health' approaches does not seem to work very effectively where the underlying cause remains the same.
Health promotion, lifestyle screening etc. are often sold on the back of improving health, attendance, profit - but the evidence is weak.
If management referrals went up I would be asking other questions, is there a new focus on absence management, new triggers for referral introduced, are there management issues at play, and of course if the reasons for referral suggest that there may be an occupational component what might be happening in the working environment.
Stuart
Dr. Stuart Whitaker
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Packham
Sent: 17 July 2008 11:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] occupational healthprotocool for managing sickness absence
Patricia,
Please - this is not a personal attack but a more general comment prompted
by your e-mail.
I get concerned when I see emphasis and effort being concentrated on
sickness management, particularly where it would appear that there has been
an upsurge in this. I liken this to attempting to work out how to get the
horse back into the stable after it has bolted, i.e. reactive, rather than
for me what I would classify as proactive, i.e. preventing the horse getting
out in the first place. This is a criticism I had of the Black report, which
concentrated far too much on rehabilitation and not nearly enough on
preventing the need for this.
Surely, if there has been an upsurge, then what should be the primary aim of
OH is to identify why this is happening and what can be done to reduce it?
Certainly there will always be sickness absence, but for me the role of OH
is to ensure that this is as small as it can be made. Perhaps the emphasis
on the reactive is why OH often finds it difficult to obtain the management
support and resources it should rightly have.
In the past I have been responsible for the management of industrial
companies and know that, as the managing director, it would be far easier to
justify allocating resources to OH if it could demonstrate that this would
result in my having a healthier and thus more productive workforce.
Let me put the following forward for thought. Managers generally have their
motorcars serviced regularly, rather than wait until they break down on the
motorway. They usually do the same with equipment, buildings, etc. Read any
engineering magazine (as I do) and you will find a great deal of effort and
resources devoted to preventative maintenance. The one area that is never
considered for preventative maintenance is that one asset without which
nothing the the workplace will happen. Of course, this is the workforce. I
would argue that OH is about preventative maintenance on people.
Believe me, when you take this approach with management you get a completely
different response. Suddenely OH is no longer a "luxury" or something that
just costs money. They can now appreciate how OH contributes to the "bottom
line".
Regards
Chris
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