Brakes, a leading supplier of food to the catering industry, is on target to save around £100,000 annually from the nurse-led absence recording service provided by Active Health Partners.
In total, Brakes employee absence costs around £1m year. Implemented in 2003 as a pilot scheme for over 1,500 drivers and warehouse staff, the absence recording service was given the approval to roll out to all its 4,500 employees after sickness absence fell by more than enough to cover the service costs.
At the core of Active Health Partners' service is a contact centre staffed by qualified nurses. Employees of Brakes who are unable to attend work are asked to call the nurse contact centre (24/7). If the absence is due to sickness they will receive immediate medical advice. The nurse will record the absence and an SMS mobile text message will be sent out to the manager. The system that captures the absence data generates reports which managers have access to via a password protected web portal.
Andy Dagger, human resources director at Brakes, said: "This takes away a lot of the emotive issues we have when people call in sick because we are in a fairly labour intensive business. Before if a driver rang in and said 'I am not coming in', immediately the manager had a pressure problem and would say 'how am I going to cover that?"
Brakes will also gain access to a database of absence statistics, which will help HR and managers to identify and address potential causes of sickness absence. |
