Earlier this year, the HSE announced that work-related stress has overtaken Musculoskeletal disorders as the biggest cause of working days lost through injury or ill-health, yet the results of Active Health Partners' (AHP) Absence Index reveal that Musculoskeletal disorders remain the largest cause (12.2%) with mental health accounting for just 5.3% of working days lost.
Dr Robin Cox, Chief Medical Officer for AHP - the leading provider of proactive employee absence management comments: "While I think the levels of stress in the workplace are high that does not mean that as much time is actually lost from stress as is commonly reported. In general, perception of time lost due to stress is probably exaggerated.
"AHP's capacity to provide more accurate absence statistics is based on the data recorded by our qualified nurses. A combination of medical expertise and the thorough procedure of assessing an employee's symptoms enables our nurses to ascertain the 'real' reasons for absence."
Simon Longley, Occupational Health Manager at AHP says: "A number of our clients have a male dominated workforce and therefore the culture may be 'macho'. It may be that employees are reluctant to go off with stress, often perceived as a failure to cope and therefore report their absences under separate headings.
"Even if stress is underreported, the figures would have to double to get close to the percentage of working days lost due to Musculoskeletal disorders."
AHPs' Absence Index for the first quarter of 2005 further reveals that stress levels vary between AHPs' client industry sectors, and unexpectedly, private sector workers are more stressed than some public sector workers.
For a leading mobile phone company, Mental Health accounted for 14.7% of working days lost, whilst those who come into direct contact with members of the public in the health services - typically known for highly pressured working environments - are reporting just 10.7%.
Sectors with the lowest levels of absence due to stress include local councils, telecommunications and housing, according to AHP's data.
Increasingly, ill health and absence is on the radar screen of senior management and more proactive measures need to be taken to deliver significant health improvements and cost savings.
"Many employers - in the private and public sectors - are taking serious steps to reduce absence levels, but their internal resources are not always effective in identifying the true drivers of absence," comments Edward Hickman, Deputy CEO at AHP.
"Our service provides a genuine employee benefit and delivers the quality management information necessary to enable better visibility of absence trends and a greater understanding of the 'real' reasons for absence."
AHPs' Absence Index is based on data recorded by the company's Nurse Contact Centre, staffed with qualified nurses providing medical advice to employees and recording their absences via a sophisticated proprietary absence recording system, ARCAM. AHP view.
About Active Health Partners (AHP)
AHP specialises in the provision of Absence Management and Accident Reporting to contact centres, logistics and distribution companies, financial institutions and government organisations. Their service aims to cut workplace absenteeism by up to 30% and assists in reducing the impact of employee absence, ill health and health-related litigation. AHP provides a Nurse Contact Centre for employees to report absences due to sickness or any other health related reason and in turn line managers are immediately notified of the absence by email and mobile text message. Managers have password protected access to real-time reporting via the web. The management reporting suite available enables them to manage, monitor, assess and analyse their departments and ultimately improve productivity. AHP further provides the recording of accidents at work and case management of complex cases (e.g. injury at work or frequent absence).
AHP is a premium partner of leading brands such as Brakes and Kingston Communications. Qualified nurses offer health advice 24/7 to over 17,000 employees in the UK and record their absences. |
