Manage employees’ return to work to reduce absence

Successfully managing employees’ return to work is the biggest factor in reducing sickness absence, according to a new report by the manufacturers’ organisation EEF.

Organisations claiming not encounter to any barriers when managing return to work had, on average, sickness absence rates that were 0.7 per cent lower than those that did report barriers, the 2008 Sickness Absence Report found. This worked out at an extra 1.5 days attendance per worker.