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Research indicates
that saving money and increasing productivity are achievable, but the
organisation must know what its OH&F costs are and have a systematic
program to reduce them.
An OH&F audit will provide a statistical base for comparing the costs
and the benefits of
• absenteeism
• workers
compensation premiums
• injuries
• rehabilitation
programs.
It's relatively easy
to quantify the costs of absenteeism and the workers' compensation.
Presentism is a tougher assignment.
A reasonable absentee
rate for a large organisation is three days absence a year for each
employee through dys-ease and dysfunction. If it is a higher rate then
there is a health and fitness problem.
In many organisations it's a lot more than three days off per person per
year, and at about $200 a day to employ someone, the cost, though often
hidden, mounts up.
For instance if you had a staff of 500 people and they all had a day off
the cost would be $100,000. If they all took 10 days off a year the
figure would jump to $1m.
WHAT'S THE
CAUSE?
As to the reason why people are taking excessive amounts of time off,
there's many of them: -
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people not in
the right job or being miles away from the job they really want
to do. |
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Lack of
autonomy |
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poor front
line management - particularly lack of interest, lack of
regular feedback, an inadequate appraisal system, and managers
wanting to get on with their work. |
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staff
bludging and pulling swifties, particularly on Mondays and
Fridays |
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lack of
personal development |
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lack of
career development |
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family life
disruption |
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low levels of
health, fitness and vitality. You'd be amazed at the
number of people who come to work tired, haven't slept well, get
frequent headaches and migraines, are anxious and depressed, put
up with excruciating musculo-skeletal pain, have abdominal pain
...You can appreciate why they take a day off now and then. |
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The good news is that these problems are eminently fixable.
WHAT CAN YOU
DO ABOUT IT?
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Get your HR
data base working for you so you can get figures at the push of
a button. |
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Train your
front line managers to become better managers. That's often
where the problem starts. Keep stats on absenteeism by section
so you can identify small problems before they become big
problems. Talking to people about their health each time they're
away and not standing for the nonsense of taking Monday's and
Fridays off is something managers are paid to do. |
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Get front
line managers to watch the statistics every month,
like a hawk, ready to pounce when they suspect someone is
pulling a swiftie, and ready to help when someone needs help. |
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Conduct an
occupational health and fitness risk audit. If people are unfit
and unhealthy it will pay to invest company money to help get
them in better shape. They'll feel good and so will you.
Miller Health
conducts occupational health and fitness audits.
In fact we're leaders in the field. |
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Run some
health management programs that are mandatory for all staff to
attend. If they're not mandatory the people most at risk won't
attend. Let staff know that you believe health is as important
as safety.
How much should you allocate from your budget each year? A good
starting point is the cost of one day's absenteeism for all
staff - ie number of staff multiplied by $200. |
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Run career
development, and personal development programs for all staff.
Career and personal challenges strike at all levels within
organisations. If you don't make sessions mandatory, the people
most in need of support won't come. |
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Bring your
employee assistance program provider in to give introductory
talks and encourage people to use their services. Encourage EAP
staff to spend time each week wandering around, getting to know
your staff and booking appointments for those who want them. |
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Give the
strongest encouragement to people at risk (particularly of
musculo-skeletal dysfunction) to attend regular training
programs. You want them to get better and you're prepared to
move heaven and earth to help them - in work's time at work's
expense. |
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Set a goal
for the average number of days off per person this year. It
could be one or more days less than last year. Remember, you
want a dividend from your investment. You'd be as pleased as
punch if you met your target. |
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Keep the
score. In some organisations they still have a board out the
front with a record of how many days it was since there was a
lost time accident. You can do something similar by having a
score board with the number of absences so far this month. |
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Reward the
people and sections who are fit and healthy. Fit and healthy
people are your most valuable asset. |
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Make the
distinction between injury and body system dysfunction. The body
is an eco-system. When people are not fit and healthy a whole
lot of body systems start to become dysfunctional, including the
mind. The most common symptoms of poor health in the workplace
are musculo-skeletal pain and stress.
Most of the cases of musculo-skeletal dysfunction I see aren't
injuries, they're dysfunctions caused by lifestyle neglect.
People aren't strong or flexible enough to tap a key board or
push a pen without getting a crook back, stiff neck, frozen
shoulder and RSI. Blaming work is a swiftie. |
OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND FITNESS (OH&F) RISK AUDIT
Miller Health can help you
conduct an occupational health and fitness
audit and let you know the
risk you're running due
to low levels of health and fitness. Low levels of fitness and health go
with a high absenteeism rate. They also go with a high presenteeism
rate, where people come to work but productivity is down due to all the
'background noise'.
Why occupational health and fitness? Well it's a big ask in our culture
expecting to stay healthy without keeping yourself fit. The greatest
threat to health in a modern office environment is people sitting down
for the 2000 minutes a week they used to move around.
Get your staff moving - make it a part of the culture. Introduce the
10,000 steps program. Encourage people to stand up while they work - if
you've got a raised platform on your desk you can still type standing
up. Rearrange the chairs during the day so people are not sitting on the
same sort of chair all day - get some fitballs and Balans chairs to
share around during the day. Put on some yoga, tai chi, Pilates, Body
Balance and Crookback Clinic sessions.
MIND AND BODY PROFILE
One of the best measures of presenteeism and risk of absenteeism is the
Mind and Body profile.
Click here to try it out for yourself online.
THE OH&F SURVEY
If you've got some spare minutes and want to go on a confidential data
base from which I can feed back industry comparisons, just let me know
the following details.
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1. Number of
staff |
............. |
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2. Total
number of days off for |
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•
sickness with a doctor's certificate |
............. |
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sickness (and sickies) without a doctor's
certificate |
............. |
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looking after sick family members |
............. |
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days people on workers comp were away |
............. |
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TOTAL |
............. |
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3. Workers
compensation premium |
$............ |
NOW ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU?
If you click on the link you'll be able to view the
programs,
assessments and
audits that we conduct, the aim of which is to inspire and motivate
your staff to keep themselves fit and healthy to the best of their
ability.
If you want more info, or you'd like me to make some sample
presentations,
send me an email
In the mean time stay tuned, highly tuned.
John Miller
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