What’s happened to the cost of absence during the pandemic?

Sickness absence fell to 2.2% during 2020, down from 2.7% in 2019: an average of five days per employee compared with 6.4 days according to the XpertHR online resource.

The combination of staff being furloughed, WFH and people shielding is believed to be the reason for the falling rates – which are expected to continue as more staff opt for hybrid forms of working.

At the same time, however, there are concerns about how Covid-19 has made it more difficult for HR to record and understand the real impact of sickness absence on businesses. Fewer than two-thirds of businesses record the impact of absence, says new research from group risk protection body GRiD among 505 HR leaders in the UK. What’s been the real cost of disrupted teams on productivity and performance?

What’s being measured

The most common method for recording absence (among 44% if businesses) is simply to account for the number of lost hours or days. 40% calculate the cost of sick pay provision (statutory and salary). 36% look at lost productivity; 36% direct costs of temp or agency staff; 33% the indirect costs of colleagues covering work and management time.

The problem is, without a strong grasp on the full extent of the costs of sickness absence, how can HR make an informed case for investing at the right levels into wellbeing, early intervention support and other related benefits?

EAP ROI

“The headline figure for absence might be falling – but what is this hiding in terms of the range of costs from disruption, increased stress in the workplace, pressures and bullying?” asks EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The need for more attention to the ROI from HR’s wellbeing initiatives led EAPA UK to compile the biggest ever data set on EAP usage, impact and financial returns in the UK (Financial Return on EAPs 2020: How Does Your Organisation Compare?). Based on 2,000 calculations made via the EAPA UK ROI calculator, we found that for every £1 spent on an EAP in the UK, employers see an average return on investment (ROI) of £7.27.”

What’s happened to the cost of absence during the pandemic?

Business leaders need to show empathy (and weakness), says Facebook

In his opinion column for City AM magazine, Karandeep Anand, the Head of Workplace at Facebook, has called for HR to ‘scrap’ their ‘meaningless’ initiatives around mental health.

With more people returning to workplaces and more ‘normal’ routines, it’s a critical time for employers to provide genuine support, helping employees with their anxieties around job security, hybrid working, ongoing isolation and future changes.

More organisations have promoted their commitment to mental wellbeing – it’s just part of the new normal – but what about the practical consequences in terms of juggling levels of responsibility and workloads?

“It’s a tale as old as time,” argued Anand. “Leadership teams say mental health comes first, but then push employees to the point of burnout. Company-wide emails promote ‘Wellness Wednesdays’, but they continue to miss tell-tale signs of mental illness because they don’t listen to their people.”

Opening doors

Anand goes on to call for more transparency and constant conversations. Leaders need to share their own experiences of struggles, encouraging a culture where it’s possible to admit vulnerabilities.

There’s a need, he says, for creating space for people to talk and to discover more about the actual experiences of staff: regular one-to-one sessions between employees and managers and leaders. If there isn’t real action on wellbeing, beyond lip service, then more employees are likely to look to move on.

New research provides hard evidence of increased demand from employees for HR support in general. Factorialhr.co.uk found that around three-quarters needed to contact HR in the past year: 42% were queries relating to mental health or illness, 31% around returning to work after an illness. 24% had gone to HR to talk about being unhappy in their role.

Listening or just talking?

“Not just employee wellbeing, but proving the authenticity of wellbeing support has become one of the biggest challenges for HR in 2021,” argues EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“Mass emails and access to web content is one thing, but the intensity of pressures over the past 18 months means that employees need to find substance beneath the promotions.

“The great strength of EAPs is the range and depth of support involved: immediate access to professional expertise and tailored advice, the chance to talk in confidence, with pathways open to the option of counselling sessions.”

Workplace ‘despair closet’ anyone?

In its bid to improve its reputation around employee treatment and experience, Amazon has introduced ‘WorkingWell’, an ‘employee-designed’ health and safety programme for all of its US operations.

The move comes in the wake of years of criticism from former and current staff at the online retail company on social media and in newspaper reports. Amazon had been accused of limiting toilet breaks and trying to find ways to fire staff without any human involvement, through digital-only processes.

AmaZen?

WorkingWell includes access for staff to an AmaZen in the workplace, an “individual interactive kiosk” where employees can spend their break time watching “videos featuring easy-to-follow wellbeing activities, including guided meditations, positive affirmations, calming scenes with sounds, and more”.

The idea of the booths hasn’t gone down well. A quick, cheap and inhuman response to the very real and complicated problems that affect employee wellbeing – many of them rooted in financial problems and a sense of not being valued as individuals. On social media the booths have become known as “despair closets” or “cry closets”, the box where staff go to hide. “I feel like liveable wages & working conditions are better than a mobile despair closet,” said one Amazon employee.

How to care

“As the past year has demonstrated, employee wellbeing is a fundamental issue, the heart of productivity, performance and organisational resilience,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“Employers need to beware of ticking the box on employee wellbeing with schemes that lack substance, that can’t begin to address the range of concerns and challenges facing people in the Covid-19 era.

“Wellbeing needs to be backed with investment and an acknowledgment of the importance of human contact and relationships. Not everything can be solved with access to instant digital content.”

Workplace ‘despair closet’ anyone? Eugene Farrell

Are managers ready for the strains of the ‘hokey cokey’ work model?

The coming months are expected to see the birth of the hybrid office – the constant ins and outs of staff mixing remote working with key meetings and team building.

The Prime Minister has again confirmed recently that 21st June should see the end to the ‘work from home wherever possible’ advice. A BBC poll has indicated that around 80% of employers expect to offer a hybrid working model.

Tough transition

Transition is going to cause more work and increased pressures for both leaders and line managers trying to juggle competing demands from staff and the need to ensure ongoing delivery in difficult economic conditions. New, more people-centred leadership styles are expected to be needed; more attention to how time in offices should be used; an ability to engage and motivate teams working in diverse ways; to monitor performance in more flexible ways; and, deal with any fall-out or tensions with staff who don’t want to be working in the office or vice-versa.

These are real challenges for leaders and managers already stressed from the pandemic period and feeling “Zoomed out” by management meetings. A survey by IDC and Unisys has suggested that four in 10 business leaders have concerns about the lack of management oversight with hybrid working approaches.

There is also growing debate over the motivations of people preferring to work from home. The CEO of office rental firm WeWork stirred up controversy by claiming that “those who are least engaged are very comfortable working from home.”

Caring for the carers

“Hybrid working is going to be a fact of working life for the foreseeable future. It’s a reasonable response to the uncertainties and concerns around Covid-19 — and offer the kind of flexibility that fits well with a pre-pandemic desire for more flexibility and work/life balance,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“But hybrid also brings a host of management issues. Make-do attitudes were fine during the crisis periods, but employers will increasingly expect high levels of performance and delivery. And that all puts intense pressure onto the management chain.

“There needs to be recognition of what this all means for leaders and managers and how they can best be supported. Their workload isn’t going to be settling down in the coming months. EAP offerings are ideal for more senior staff looking for immediate access to professional advice and reassurance.” 

work model, Eugene Farrell

Are HR investing in the right areas of wellbeing?

Around nine in 10 employers are worried about the increases in numbers of their staff reporting mental health issues, says a new survey from Willis Towers Watson of 213 UK companies.

In response, 75% plan to improve benefits provision in the short and medium term; 78% with a particular focus on stress management and mental health services over the next six months. 64% intend to make sure current wellbeing offerings were highlighted.

The data picked out the most common health benefits being offered: mental health support (68%), GP consultations (68%) and physiotherapy/musculoskeletal support (45%). But for the future, employers are looking to also include specific services around menopause (37%), male health (30%), female health (29%), gender transition (28%), fertility treatment (23%).

What’s wellness?

The question is whether HR plans are in line with what employees are really looking for, and what’s going to help them best cope with the new normal.

In another survey, this time by Canada Life among 592 employees currently working from home, 87% said they wanted access to mental health support. 54% wanted to see the introduction of mental wellness days; the same proportion was keen for help in addressing ‘always on’ presenteeism while working from home.

Work by IDC and Unisys suggests employers’ plans are out of sync with employee needs. In research carried out among 1,100 people across 15 countries they found 66% of firms planned to operate with a new model, and that 64% wanted to create a better working environment. For employers that meant safety first, but also increased productivity. For employees however, their priorities were having a work location and schedule conducive to family life (66%); being empowered and given more independence (51%). Employers were more interested in the problems with WFH and the need for better technology. Only 7% of staff surveyed were concerned about the lack of management oversight.

Getting into tune

“We’re in a stage where both sides of the world of work, employers and their people, are looking for change. We’re all looking to re-build in positive ways that bring a greater sense of resilience and psychological safety,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The broad agreement might be there, but there are going to be differences in emphasis and detail that could lead to less effective or wasted wellbeing investment. The value of EAP services are their breadth and depth. For employees they offer an independent outlet for talking about any kind of issue, at any level. And for organisations as a whole, the kind of solid platform necessary for securing engagement and performance.”

Lonely and unappreciated? Facing up to the fall-out from WFH

WFH: A new survey of more than 1,000 UK employees (by Ezra) has found that 20% believed they were working harder remotely but were also less appreciated.

The shift to remote working arrangements has been necessary but led to a range of unintended consequences, particularly over time. The realities of spending so much time away from colleagues have sunk in. There have been more regular reports of staff feeling disconnected from their peers and their employer overall, whether furloughed or WFH, or even as a result of the shift to hybrid working.

The need for togetherness

Workplace commentators have pointed to how the pandemic year has exposed the value of face-to-face interactions, both at a social level and for management. More people are having to work harder, take on more responsibilities and deal with uncertainty and change. In normal times all of those challenges would have been accompanied by more support and interaction with HR and managers.

“Mixing at coffee docks and on the office floor gives an opportunity for personal thanks and praise and encouragement,” says Dr John Moriarty, lecturer at the Queen’s University Belfast, School of Social Science, Education and Social Work. “Even when management does remember to thank their staff, I imagine this could feel impersonal to someone receiving this thanks on a video call with hundreds of colleagues.”

Instead, there are warnings of a rise in presenteeism – more recognition and rewards for employees who are simply spending more time at their keyboard, being visible digitally, rather than those who are genuinely being productive. And as a result, HR and managers need to make sure there isn’t a return to a culture where long hours are all that matter, and look to find new ways of appreciating commitment and contribution.

Who will be the best employers for remote and hybrid workers?

“Many of us have enjoyed the flexibility of remote working, and many want those benefits to continue. But that was only the first stage of change, the sense of novelty, of new opportunities for exercise and hobbies and more time with family and friends,” said EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“This next phase is going to be far more difficult. Even those people who most benefited the changes involved will be questioning the longer term impact, what’s happened to their relationships with colleagues, what it means for their career. Are they getting the same level of attention, do people really see the extra effort involved?

“Employers need to make sure they have a good remote work culture as much as a good workplace culture. That means awareness of the new challenges and the support to match, including professional mental wellbeing and EAP services. Because increasingly that’s what new recruits are going to be looking for and demanding as the new normal.”

What does the year’s stress hangover mean for HR?

Levels of absence from stress have risen by 113% since March 2019, according to a study of data from absence management platform e-days, relating to 1,500 employees. The average number of people taking leave because of stress is up by 74%.

At the same time, the recovery time for staff dealing the stress-related issues has grown longer. e-days research has also shown that 58% of employees ‘feel exhausted’.

Money or health?

The study provides more supporting evidence for how staff attitudes to benefits have changed. Wellbeing has shot to the top of the list of priorities. Asked whether they would prefer extra money or time for themselves, 62% of employees said they would take an additional day off each year.

The Stress Management Society, in its analysis, has concluded that the pandemic has led to three main strands of stress that HR need to be aware of: a sense of disconnection with work, uncertainty and loss of control. It has advised that all staff need to be able to openly discuss stress and its effects on them, talk about their coping mechanisms, and be allowed to take time out when needed.

Road back to normal

“While the UK continues to make strong progress along the road back to normality, workplaces have to be aware of the aftershocks from prolonged periods of heightened anxieties and uncertainty,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“The risks are clear: exhaustion and burnout for people who have needed to battle through increased workloads and constant change, bottling up stress in ways that lead to threats to mental wellbeing. More people looking to make major changes to their way of life. More people wanting to change jobs, change their routines. Evidence from Aviva this month has suggested that three in five UK staff intend to make change to their career in some way.

“EAPs will help people through this period of psychological fallout from the pandemic, when we’re struggling with the big questions about what we want from our jobs and lives more generally. EAPs help people open up and make sure they’re addressing issues with stress – but with the range of advice available, they can also ensure employees aren’t making knee-jerk decisions about their future.”

Stress hangover mean for HR

Can we talk about death?

Almost a quarter of UK employees experienced a bereavement in the period from September 2019 to  September last year (7.9 million staff). A survey of 1,000 people by the Sue Ryder charity has shown that a third of those people didn’t receive any kind of communication about the bereavement from HR or their manager.

Death continues to be a topic that employers – and people in general – find too difficult to talk about. Rather than say the wrong thing, we prefer to say nothing at all. But in the case of relationships with employees, that can lead to damaging effects on levels of trust and confidence. In a separate study by Hospice UK, 56% of employees said they would consider leaving their employer if they didn’t provide ‘proper’ bereavement support.

Bereavement policy

A range of approaches have been suggested for HR as the basis of a policy that can outlined to staff so they know what to expect in terms of leave and work patterns.

A policy might also include help with the grieving process by encouraging staff to have conversations about their feelings, giving space and time to share their experience with colleagues; being flexible to temporary adjustments in work routines, moving them from dealing with difficult customers, being able to start later or leave early or generally take on lighter duties.

Companies will often offer three to five days of compassionate leave as a standard part of an employment contract – but there is an argument for longer periods of paid bereavement leave.

Support or intrusion?

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “When an employee is grieving they have every right to be selfish. They get to choose whether they want to talk or if they want to be left alone. They should never feel obliged to conform to rules of behaviour around dealing with death – to want to open up, to be grateful for people’s expressions of sympathy – it’s just too personal and hard a thing for anyone else to have any say on what’s right and what’s wrong.

“That’s what makes the role of HR and managers in bereavement so challenging. And why a formal bereavement policy can’t be prescriptive, it needs to stay a loose guide. People, of course, don’t want to feel like their situation is being ignored, they need to know there is empathy and sympathy for what’s happened. But sometimes arms around the shoulder and constant invitations to talk can be intrusive.

“The great benefit of an EAP service is that it’s always there for staff – anonymised, professional help on dealing with any aspect of dealing with the fall-out from bereavement – so that HR don’t need to push support onto people, leaving them to make their own choices during the hardest of times.”

Is a ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ there to help employees or just the business?

Microsoft and LEGO have both claimed to be putting empathy at the heart of their senior leadership approach. Not only does an emphasis on empathy lead to happier employees, they say, but it also means better performance, higher levels of customer satisfaction and a stronger brand.

Josh Bersin, HR and management guru in the US, has coined the term ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ to emphasise the growing importance of a caring attitude to building a sense of belonging in the workforce, particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need for engagement and resilience. Employers need to prove that they are a shoulder to lean on, he has concluded. As the most visible people, business leaders need to take on that role: people first, economics second.

Empathy in action

During 2020 there were a number of instances when CEOs were shown to be demonstrating their credentials as Chief Empathy Officers. For example, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, and his call for CEOs to follow in his footsteps of making a “no layoff pledge” for 90 days, to give more security to employees and build more confidence. When redundancies were needed, CEOs like Mark Hoplamazian at Hyatt Hotels have been pointed to as models of leaders doing their very best to minimise the anxiety: decisions were made quickly to reduce any waiting period, and wide-ranging support provided for everyone affected.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Yuko, the Professor of Ethics at Fordham University, a culture of empathy generally at work leads to greater productivity. When people feel more comfortable and secure, knowing that their issues are being understood, the workplace is transformed, because “there is a people issue behind nearly every problem in a company,” said Bersin.

EAPs keep it real

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Empathy is a valuable quality for everyone in the workplace – something simple and fundamental, staying human, caring about other people and how they’re feeling.

“Making empathy a focus for business leadership and decision-making, however, is something more difficult and complex. Staff want empathy from their manager, they want it from HR; and when they have particular challenges they know they’re going to experience empathy from professionals delivering services on behalf of an EAP. But the CEO and other senior leaders have to make the hard business decisions that are essential for resilience and security. They have to get the balance right between economics and people.

“It’s important that the principle of empathy isn’t de-valued though mis-use. No-one wants to get to a situation where employers use the idea to boost their employer branding, for good PR, when behind the scenes exactly the same hard decisions are being made.

“In reality, the support for staff and their sense of psychological security comes from conversations with their peers, their line manager, knowing that they have the option of contacting an EAP and getting professional advice and guidance. In the difficult months ahead, as workplaces try to return to something close to normal ways of working, all employees need to know that the caring and the everyday support they receive is real, not window-dressing.”

Is talking about money problems now harder than mental health?

A new CIPD poll among 420 employers in the UK has shown how 49% did not have a policy on financial wellbeing – and that figure was higher (64%) among sectors where staff are traditionally on low pay: retail, hospitality and leisure, catering and cleaning.

At the same time, it was employers in the lower paid sectors who were most likely to admit that their staff finances had been badly affected by the Covid-19 situation. Only 46% said they had looked at exactly how the pandemic might have impacted their people financially, and the problems that might have resulted.  Only 12% said the turmoil of 2020 had led them to introduce a financial wellbeing policy.

Money in mind

In response, the CIPD has questioned whether HR has prioritised mental health – the symptoms of problems – over a likely cause, the practical nuts and bolts of finances.

“For too long [financial wellbeing] has been considered the poor relation to wellbeing but we know the two are intrinsically linked and should have parity,” said Charles Cotton, senior performance and reward adviser at the CIPD.

“While we fully acknowledge how tough it is for businesses right now, with many just focusing on surviving, we think there’s a strong case for employers to be doing more to support their people’s financial wellbeing. It may well be that even light-touch steps, such as signposting to independent money and debt advice, can start to make a difference.” 

Even a taboo?

“Money worries aren’t just something for people who have been made redundant or without work. Figures from debt charity StepChange showed that almost half the people coming to them during the first lockdown were in jobs,” said EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“There can be a sense of shame and awkwardness when it comes to talking about money problems. We live in a culture where our finances, our ability to be carefree consumers with the latest smartphone, expensive cars and holidays, is used as a very visible measure of personal ‘success’.

“So while it’s become more acceptable to be open about stress, anxiety and depression, in some ways it can be harder to admit that our finances are a problem. EAPs are a critical source of support for employees with any money-related issues or queries, and it will be increasingly important that the financial advice services are promoted to employees in the coming months.”