Paul Avis argues that, in a price sensitive era, early intervention and rehabilitation are important for the containment of group income protection premiums
Very few would question the importance of involving rehabilitation nurses in absence issues at an early stage. But what is meant by "early" and just what can they achieve?
When an employee is first absent from work, the line manager and other colleagues tend to be the main contacts, willingly offering "tea and sympathy" to help get the absent employee get back on their feet.
However, when it becomes obvious that is not enough, they can be at a loss as what to do, especially if the cause of the absence is due to stress, anxiety or depression.
A common course of action is to do nothing at all and even avoid contact with the absent employee for fear of making the situation worse.
About 30% of all Canada Life Group Insurance claims submitted to date in 2011 are for psychological conditions.
This is a typical pattern and, for an untrained line manager, the subjective nature of these absences - where you cannot see, feel and touch the problem - can cause concerns, particularly when there is no clear diagnosis.
The perceived lack of activity from the manager can leave the employee feeling abandoned and isolated.
With an estimated 9.8 million working days lost through work-related stress (2009-10), this is a huge problem.
Many believe that at six weeks, mental health begins to supersede physical health and so early intervention is key to successful work reintegration and a lack of contact may exasperate this.
Putting a plan in place
The first challenge for the employer is to make sure that absence notifications, ideally a telephone questionnaire, are undertaken in a professional manner - no texts, calling the gatehouse or a colleague - and these are then recorded.
Still, the recording of absence does not routinely lead to proactive prompts for action from the line manager, although this should be required of them.
There are some superb "day one" absence services that have systems that do this but, despite incredibly positive return on investment results, many employers seem resistant to embrace this aspect of operational efficiency.
At a base level this should be seeking a GP fit note, arranging face-to-face meetings at certain "trigger points", involving other stakeholders such as Health and Safety (H&S) and so forth.
The really good line manager (where appropriate) will also promote services such as Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), bereavement and probate lines for the recently bereaved, and second diagnosis services for serious conditions.
This maximises the value of embedded employee offerings from corporate expenditure on benefits.
Of course, human resources (HR) is usually on hand and some employers have their own occupational health (OH) support unit.
But to initially enforce the absence policy and procedure, the ownership lies squarely in the hands of the line manager.
They sometimes believe absence management is only the domain of HR and OH, so management training is recommended.
