- - Musculoskeletal absence reduced by 16.5%
- - Increased transparency
- - Improved management tools
- - Integration with Go-Ahead’s absence management strategy
- - RTW Compliance almost doubles across the organisation
FirstCare have been working in partnership with Go-Ahead London since 2006. Pat Mahon, General Manager Operations for Go-Ahead London was first introduced to the concept of Absence Management whilst he was seconded to Aviance, an aviation department of the Go-Ahead Group. Pat believed that an absence management service had benefits for both employer and employee.
The first original objective set out for using the FirstCare service was to assist in helping to reduce absence by using the tools provided by FirstCare. The use of these tools met the second objective of having an appropriate mechanism for tracking the activity levels of line managers. The third and final objective met was to introduce absence management as an employee benefit. Employees using the service to report their absences also have access to free confidential medical advice 24/7.
From an operating manager perspective the running of a bus garage with approximately 700 staff can be challenging and it is important that managers have visibility of staff that are absent. FirstCare provides managers with access to the myFirstCare portal which details their absenct staff, provides online Return to
Work Interview forms on their return with pre-populated absence information and gives timely reminders on staff who have met the organisations absence policy triggers.
Sheldon Malcolm, an Operating Manager based at one of the London sites, provided his feedback on the service. “I started to use the absence management service and portal with some reservation. My main concern was staff reporting to an outside agency rather than directly to the allocation officer in their employment location. For this reason it was important to ensure that there was regular contact and training by First Care prior to commencement and in the early stages of operation. My staff and I are pleased to say that during this period we were comprehensively trained on how best to use the portal and monitor staff absence.
Having now used it for 5 years I have welcomed the many additional enhancements that have come on stream by way of innovative technology. The myFirstCare portal has become a very important part of an Operating Managers daily procedure to monitor and deal with absence at their location”.
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