April 2008 – Fitness to work

For one or two brief stretches in a career that goes back longer than I care to admit I have been a manager. Before entering journalism I was an assistant manager in a supermarket, securing a promotion after working for a while as a management trainee.

It was at a time, I should hasten to add, before there was an out-of-town superstore on every ring road. This particular supermarket was in the middle of town and small by today’s standards, but it would be fair to describe it as the second biggest shop after Marks & Spencer.

Most of the staff worked on the checkouts apart from the butchers’ department. The rest were employed filling shelves or behind the drinks counter with one or two administrative staff to look after wages. There was no personnel department, no human resources processes and very little management guidance.

The only instruction I was given by the manager - I worked out the ordering system for myself - was that I should insist that staff addressed me as Mr Donkin. Even now I cannot recall this without feeling a deep sense of embarrassment, but at the time it was not unusual to refer to managers by their second names.

I ignored the instruction and did not maintain the distance from other staff that the manager demanded. Most companies in those days distinguished between management and staff with separate canteens and offices, so he wasn’t behaving unusually. But when you mixed with people you quickly discovered if anyone had a problem.

An absence was discussed and understood. There was no formal policy. It was simply the way we worked. It’s not so easy to be so informal in a big employer today but it is still possible to talk to people about their personal issues, particularly in relation to absence.

The Royal Mail has made time for such discussions on a weekly basis in its work programme. It calls them ‘Work Time Listening and Learning’ (WTLL) sessions where each line-manager engages with his or her team, covering a range of issues, including return to work interviews.

There is a big difference between an informal discussion and one where staff members are called in to the office to explain themselves in what amounts to an interrogation.

The listening approach, one of a number of polices introduced to help cut down absenteeism at the Royal Mail, has paid off. According to a London School of Economics’ analysis of health and wellbeing policies across the group, such initiatives have saved the Royal Mail as much as £227 million over three years by reducing absence across its 180,000 strong workforce from 7 per cent to just under 5 per cent between 2004 and 2007.

That’s a substantial drop, achieved by a combination of stick and carrot. The worst way to approach absence is to ignore it. If people are malingering, it’s sending out a message that you do not care and that perception may be part of the problem.

Neither does it help those who are genuinely ill, since they will feel less likely to rush back to work if it appears that no-one is too worried whether they turn up or not. People work best when they feel needed and inquiring about an absence is a natural thing to do in small teams.

It need not be a formal approach unless people are making a habit of taking time off with a range of sudden illnesses. When that happens it might be sensible to intervene more firmly, possibly requesting a second opinion.

The need for people to feel wanted in the workplace was acknowledged by Dame Carol Black in her recent review of long term sickness and benefits which, among other things, discussed the idea of family doctors substituting sick notes, signing people off work, with electronic “fit notes” indicating to an employer what type of work someone may be capable of doing.

As working from home gains more acceptance among employers this seems like a good idea. Why couldn’t people do a bit of work while convalescing at home? I find that when I’m suffering from a virus it often comes in waves leaving opportunities for some work in the brief respites that occur as an illness runs its course. I might need to cancel some meetings but phone calls are often possible, if only to share my misery with someone else.
A few weeks ago I had a very unpleasant bug that lasted a fortnight but I didn’t let it interfere too much with my writing schedule. I’m not trying to play the martyr here, simply making the point that there were expectations that needed to be fulfilled.

The review, that estimated the annual cost to the economy of illness among the working-age population of the UK at more than £100 billion, also called for companies to include absence and well being reporting in their annual reports.

More important still, however, was the general recognition that workplaces had a role to play in helping people maintain their health.

The Royal Mail has cut absences through a series of measures, including the provision of a health screening service for employees, a telephone health advice contact centre for employees and their families, and the provision of health clinics at 90 of its depots. People returning to work can use a national physiotherapy and occupational therapy service.

Its larger sites – 38 around the country – have fitness centres and trained instructors on hand to give exercise and nutritional advice. More recently it has introduced an online health checking and assessment service.

A web-based approach has been adopted by Standard Life Healthcare, a private medical insurer and subsidiary of Standard Life Assurance. Its online health management system includes a confidential questionnaire looking at various health issues and provides a health rating with suggestions on how to improve the score. The system is voluntary but has been adopted by 85 per cent of staff, saving the company £1m. Staff turnover has been reduced by 13 per cent and productivity has risen by 25 per cent since the system was introduced.

AstraZenica, the pharmaceuticals and healthcare services business, has also used staff surveys to identify the factors that can cause health problems. Access to gyms and sports grounds, healthy eating options in its canteens, screening medicals and employee counselling are all available within the company.

Such visible commitments to take health seriously encourage employees to help one another lead healthier lives. Companies can no longer afford to ignore the health of their employees no more than they can afford to ignore the health of the business. One very much depends on the other.

See also: Employee health and fitness at BT