Absent staff bigger headache than ever

Staff who are not at work are by far the biggest headache for UK HR managers - and absence management is a growing challenge. This is despite recent research showing that absence has dropped to its lowest level for 15 years. The widespread belief that stress management is the major workplace health issue is overturned by research published today, by IRS Employment Review.

For almost one in five HR managers, absence was the most difficult aspect of their work last year. In the public sector, the proportion of HR managers citing absence as the single most challenging area of their work rises to nearly 30%.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that almost 90% of HR professionals believe that line managers do not like managing absence.

The results are released in the new issue (775) of IRS Employment Review (www.irsemploymentreview.com), published by LexisNexis IRS. The findings are based on responses from 432 HR managers surveyed earlier this year (see notes to editors). Other findings include:

35.9% of respondents stated that long-term absence was the single most challenging health and safety issue they faced last year, placing it well ahead of even short-term absence, which 23.6% cited as the top challenge.

When asked about whether sick leave was genuine or not, the responses were fairly evenly split between those who thought it was and those who did not. Other research suggests that up to one third of sickness absence is taken for reasons other than sickness, such as caring for dependents.

Just 10.2% of HR managers said that stress management was their biggest challenge.

The rising cost of employers' liability insurance, currently the subject of two government reviews, emerges as a key issue for almost a fifth of survey respondents.

Only one third of HR professionals are aware of the government's targets for improving health and safety.


IRS attendance and absence editor, Sarah Silcox said:

ìSome people may be surprised that stress management has not topped the list of headaches for HR managers but it still remains a priority and ranks in the top three challenges. HR managers report that workplace health has become an increasingly important part of their job, particularly when dealing with issues connected to stress. While the government is seeking a 10% cut in the number of employees injured or made ill by work by the end of this year, we found that the majority (two thirds) of HR professionals are unaware of national targets for health and safety improvement. People managers have some way to go to ensure that employees are helped back to work.î

The full survey is published in the current edition (775) of IRS Employment Review or can be found on its website