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In 2009 and average 6.4 days per employee, per annum were lost due to absence, equating nearly a £17 billion hit on the UK economy. These are the latest absence statistics from the CBI and Pfizer employee health and absence report which surveyed senior HR staff at 241 public and private sector organisations across the [...]
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Approximately 3 million carers across the UK are juggling employment and their caring responsibilities, making up over 12% of the workforce or one in every eight employees. And the percentage of carers in the workplace is steadily growing with over 2 million people becoming carers each year. Being a carer is like having a whole other [...]
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The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have joined forces to ensure Britain has a stable Government and have promised that this pact will last until the next election in May 2015. Their policies, whilst not always perfectly aligned, focus on economic stability with the overriding priority being the need to reduce the £163bn public deficit. In [...]
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According to David Stevenson, Senior Occupational Health Adviser, at FirstCare there are some simple steps that organisations can take to support people with mental health issues. These include: Introduce policies Developing a mental health and wellbeing policy shows employees that the company recognises the importance of its workforce’s mental health and wellbeing. Having an absence [...]
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With the current sick note policy changing in April this year, employees and employers alike will no doubt see a huge change in how absence is recorded and authorised. But what do the changes really mean? The current sick note system allows GPs to sign an individual off work for a period of up to [...]
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It is in our interest as employers to help our employees to stop smoking. There is the obvious reason that it is much better for the individual in terms of health to be a non-smoker than a smoker, but then for us there are absence and productivity reasons. With smoking-related illnesses continuing to rise, sickness [...]
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Serious sufferers of Seasonal Affected Disorder or SAD may well need to invest in both a waking light and a SAD light treatment device such as a medically approved light box. You can find a list off approved products atwww.sad.org.uk. The entire website with its advice can be downloaded as a PDF and printed out [...]
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We’ve long believed that the return to work interview is a vital component in the drive to reduce sickness absence. So much so, that part of our Day 1 Absence Management service (Click through to day 1 absence management programme page) involves sending prompts and reminders to line managers to encourage them to conduct an RTW [...]
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Any activity where the body is required to perform repetitive tasks can lead to the development of Repetitive strain/stress injury (RSI), but with the increased use of computers both at work and at home, it has become more prevalent amongst office workers. RSI is an umbrella term for a range of complaints, the most common [...]
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1700 7th August – Telegraph Online – Swine flu “skivers”cost firms more than virus, say employers Staff using the swine flu pandemic as an excuse to taketime off work are causing more disruption to businesses than the virus itself,according to employers. Thousands of healthy workers are thought to have taken advantage ofofficial guidelines on the [...]
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The first thing to do is to assess the situation, and Day 1 absence management is key to this. The minimum that anyone with a fracture is going to be off work is a day or two, largely for hospital appointments and assessment and treatment of the damage done. Depending on the fracture, your employee [...]
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Establishing policies on alcohol and drugs is essential for any sizeable workforce. Most companies would enforce an absolute ban on drugs, other than those prescribed for a medical condition, but alcohol consumption is not always so easy to rule out. For some workers whose jobs require them to drive or operate machinery, it is essential [...]
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Every employer has a legal duty to protect the health and safety of their staff, as well as other people who may be affected by your business activity. This may include members of the public, customers, or even suppliers. The following are principles drawn up by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). In general, employers [...]
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DIY notice to staff Please feel free to copy this notice and post it on staff notice boards, newsletters, intranets etc. to help your staff stay safe. The warmer weather and the longer hours of daylight are enough to send DIY enthusiasts up ladders and into orbital sanding with scant regard for personal safety. But [...]
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It’s a depressing thought that one in four of the UK population will experience some form of mental health problem in any given year. Mental health problems such as stress and anxiety, as well as some more serious conditions, are on the increase, and it’s unlikely that they won’t affect our work. What may be more surprising is how [...]
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According to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), once you’ve had six months off work, you have an 80% chance of this stretching into five years without working. The implications of this for the worker and the employer are fairly costly. Work helps people to feel fulfilled and well, while languishing at home in [...]
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All organisations, especially those with multiple departments and locations, need to have contingency plans for major incidents. We’ve been working with several of our clients to devise a model that provides robust processes which will allow them to adapt and react quickly as a major incident scenario unfolds. A large part of achieving continuity in [...]
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Remote working may not be integral to everyone’s company culture under normal circumstances; but the ability to work from home certainly came into its own under a blanket of snow, a standstill in public transport and some impassable roads. Since climate change definitely seems to be with us, and that could mean summer floods and [...]
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With frequent media stories of documents and dossiers left in taxis; and laptops either stolen from cars and pubs, or forgotten on trains; it’s small wonder that the man in the street is concerned that his details are falling into the wrong hands. And no-one could agree more than FirstCare that sensitive personal information must [...]
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The FirstCare team had a great three days at the European HR Directors Summit at the ICC, Birmingham in January. Not only did we learn a lot from the experience, we were also able to impart some of the knowledge and expertise that we’ve gained working with major organisations over the past few years. If [...]
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Despite perceived increased pressure on employees to be in work, this January has surpassed all previous records for absence after the Christmas break. The increase is primarily due to coughs/colds and flu-like symptoms – and we’re not talking imaginary ‘man flu’. This has been a national problem that encompasses both the public and private sector. [...]
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