How can you prevent long-term sick leave?
Long-term sick leave comes at a cost for both the employee and the company. This is the case whether the sick leave is due to stress, physical pain or other reasons. In this article, we look at some of the key costs of long-term sickness absence and how these can be prevented.
Economics and statistics
A study by the Danish Employers' Confederation shows that sickness absence costs Danish society DKK 46 billion every year. Every day, around four Danish employees are sick, and according to the Danish Working Environment Authority more than 30% are absent for more than 30 days.
25% of all sick leave is due to pain in the body. Long-term sick leave with a duration of more than 8 weeks is in several cases due to injuries and illnesses related to muscles and joints. The Danish Health and Medicines Authority therefore recommends that companies make an effort to prevent pain and illness among their employees in order to ensure a good working environment.
The economic cost of long-term sick leave due to physical pain amounted to a loss of production of DKK 6.9 billion for low back and neck pain in 2012.
Preventing long-term sick leave
Thus, to reduce sickness absence, companies need to pay attention to working methods and structures that can help them detect employees' physical and psychological challenges, which may eventually develop into long-term sickness absence.
"The Danish Council for Prevention has pointed out that training initiatives that take place in the workplace have very good effect, and therefore it is one of the tracks that we believe workplaces should continue to work with. The individual can of course do something, but it is important to point out that managers in the workplace have a major task in ensuring that initiatives can be taken that employees can take advantage of", says Søren Brostrøm.
Up to 10% of long-term sick leave can be prevented by focusing on the psychological work environment.
Examples of preventive measures:
- Preventive training (preferably during working hours or as an extension of working hours) targeted at the stresses to which the individual employee is exposed in connection with work.
- Access to tools to help prevent problems and stresses - physical and psychological.
At Health Group, we have been working with health and well-being in the workplace since 2002 and we are experts in the above initiatives. Want us to help your company and your employees?
Our core competencies are the preparation of
- Workplace assessments
- Well-being and health surveys
- Health profilesand health checks
- Company Fitness and online training
- Proactive processing arrangements
- ergonomics
- Advice and counseling
- Crisis management
- Mental health
- Massage scheme
In addition, the Ministry of Employment recommends on their website sygefravaer.dk recommends an action package with nine good tools to prevent work-related sickness absence.
The tools are the following:
- Well-being stairs
- Prevent further sick leave
- Find and prioritise the hard tasks
- Social capital
- The relocation flower
- Prioritise the core task
- Prevent and manage pain
- Prevent bullying
- Have the talk - break the habits
Sources:
