Welfare Reform, The Sickness Absence Review and the Health and Work Service are all initiatives that put the responsibility of employee welfare squarely on the shoulders of the employer. The actual cost of supporting these is significant and rising, and UK plc will need support.
The responsibility put on employers can be an extra burden on top of running their business. Absent employees not only put pressure on colleagues that have to pick up their work, they can also be expensive for companies to support financially. Yet support is available, if the employer looks for it, in the form of Group Income Protection (GIP). Wrapped up within GIP is a large amount of support for managing absence. It can include processes for recording absence, with triggers to identify employees absent for stress and back problems, where proactive intervention will be beneficial to both the employer and employee. An absent employee who works for a company which has GIP in place can be offered independent assessment, support and rehabilitation. Absent employees who are engaged earlier are more likely to return to work quicker. There is an ongoing focus on absence within Welfare Reform, with the Sickness Absence Review focusing on the long-term absent, and the Health and Work Service focusing on the short-term absent.
Absence management comes into its own when it isn’t a tick-box exercise, but part of an overall culture, and one that engages staff from day one of absence. The company that has a policy in place for supporting their staff from the outset is the one that is more likely to get their staff back to work more quickly. The beauty of GIP is that it isn’t one-size-fits-all. The traditionally paternalistic companies may pay more and do more to support their staff, and the traditionally clinical companies may pay less and do less to support their staff. GIP can offer as much support as needed, from full-blown absence management and rehabilitation through to a basic insurance for replacement income. The key is to delve into what’s available, probably via a broker, and ensure that – as an employer – you have a GIP policy that will give you what fits with your company values and liabilities.
Of course GIP is considered expensive and this is a common barrier to it being introduced by employers. However, all employers have a degree of responsibility for the continued wellbeing of their employees, who could potentially be reliant solely on statutory sick pay. Without support from the business, employee absence could be protracted, which will impact productivity and staff morale, as well as bring increased costs associated with managing extra workloads. Given that GIP can offset this impact, as well as provide invaluable additional support for both the employer and employee, is it really that expensive? As an example, an SME with a payroll of £1mn could introduce this benefit from as little as £5k per annum.
It is not untypical for us to see significant savings when GIP is used effectively. One of our largest clients has reported savings of £1mn in the total cost of absence where GIP played a significant part. The more difficult-to-calculate value that we see is the positive effect on an employee when they are supported by their company. The employee left on their own can struggle. The employee that is offered support by their company is more likely to want to return to that company. Work is good for people, people want to work, and support that is offered to help them back to work is appreciated.
One thing is for sure, as Health & Wellbeing moves further up the government agenda through Welfare Reform, together with Health and Work service, employers will need to embrace the support from policies such as GIP as part of their increased responsibility for keeping their staff at work. The good news is that GIP can offer a viable and affordable solution. Now is the time to look into GIP and the support it can offer the business.
