As any business survey will tell you, absence, whether caused by sickness or non-medical factors, is a major concern for employers. High levels of absence are can quickly devastate a workforce, leading to losses in efficiency and productivity. Warns James Arquette Director, FirstCare.

Employers are always walking something of a tightrope, as their efforts to minimise the effect of absence must not come at the cost of staff morale. This begs the question as to how employers, or more specifically their HR teams, can effectively manage their absence levels, particularly when dealing with large workforces. For many, the solution is to outsource this particular HR function – begging two questions: what does this involve, and what are the benefits to the employer? The mechanics of an outsourced HR service are relatively straightforward, in that it is a retained company to which employees report their absence, rather than contacting their own managers or HR teams.

The job of the outside provider is to receive this information, offer any advice (including of a medical nature) that might support the employee’s wellbeing and return to work, and then to both report back to their client and record the information. This should not, however, be the end of the process, and good outsourced absence management also requires the provider to follow up on the employee’s absence and make sure the proper ‘back to work’ procedures are carried out by managers that help identify underlying causes for sustained or frequent periods of absence. If that is how outsourced absence management works, then what are its benefits? At the most basic level, it relieves internal HR teams of the burdensome job of recording absence within the workforce: a job often so time-consuming that it can prevent HR staff from actually doing anything with the information they collect, which can be damaging to the moral of the workforce. By outsourcing this function, HR teams, particularly of large organisations, can allow themselves the time to plan and implement strategies that ultimately reduce absence and support employees, thereby ensuring a happy and productive staff.

However, if this was the only benefit, then HR teams could simply employ more people themselves to meet the demands of absence reporting. Where absence management providers really come into their own is in the consistency of the way they work and the wider perspective of absence trends they have compared to any internal team. Many absence management specialists work with multiple organisations within the same sector, and this instantly gives them access to a more comprehensive data set outlining the absence trends of the industry as opposed to those of an individual business or organisation. Properly utilised, absence management specialists can then bring this information to the attention of their clients, who in turn can implement protocols, such as installing hand sanitisers in offices to prevent the spread of coughs and colds, that put them ‘ahead of the curb’ and limit future increases in employee absence.

In monitoring employee absences through to their conclusion, absence management providers are also well placed – indeed often better placed than internal HR teams – to ensure compliance with absence management policies across the client’s whole management structure, and that key components such as return to work interviews are not only being completed, but are being done in a uniform way by all managers. This means that employers and their HR teams can have a fuller understanding of absence levels and their causes. It also means that managers not fully completing the return to work process can be swiftly identified and given the remedial support they need allowing HR managers to conduct absence management training more efficiently and cost-effectively.

There is a final serious benefit to outsourced absence management: namely mitigating risk to employers. In a similar way to ensuring uniformity among managers, absence management specialists should ensure uniformity in the way their teams deal with any reported absence, asking each employee the same questions, in the same way, and offering the same support. This process being undertaken by an independent third party reduces the risk of employee complaints over unfair or biased treatment, which in turn reduces the prospect of costly settlement and frees HR teams from time consuming investigations into accusations of malpractice. Some employers will of course ask why absence management cannot be delivered entirely in-house, but outsourcing this function is never a reflection on the capabilities of any HR professional or team. Rather, it is about unlocking the savings and efficiencies that cannot be provided within the comparatively limited resources of an internal team, while also providing a wider perspective and uniformity of approach that aids employee and employer alike, and ensures a position of strength rather than weakness.

James Arquette Director
FirstCare
www.firstcare.eu