Health and wellbeing support is being used to prevent long-term absence — but what actually works?

Health and wellbeing support is being used to prevent long-term absence — but what actually works?

58% of employers in a survey of 500 senior HR professionals in the UK said that long-term employee absence was having a “high to severe” impact on their operations. 30% said short-term absences were the cause of the same level of problems.

Most commonly the causes were chronic illnesses, heart disease and diabetes (28%); acute medical conditions such as cancer or stroke (27%). But in combination, the most prevalent causes are home-life-related depression or anxiety accounted (21%) and work-related stress (18%).

Absence and the causes are tracked…

Among those surveyed, 89% felt their organisation has a “good understanding” of absence and causes. And 61% use their health and wellbeing offerings in general as preventative measures to limit absence. 15% don’t use health and wellbeing support specifically for its impact on absence.

The most used interventions to help staff return to work are the offer of flexible working arrangements (42%), counselling for mental health (34%) and occupational health support (25%).

…but the impact of efforts to limit absence usually aren’t

EAPA UK chair, Karl Bennett said: “A clear understanding of the picture on absence is the first stage. Its essential for informing a health and wellbeing strategy: what issues should be targeted for advice and support, among which groups in the employee population.

“But given the degree of the implications of both long and short-term absence, the disruption, the strain on colleagues, there needs to be more attention to what health and wellbeing interventions have an impact, that help to prevent or limit the extent of long-term absence. In other words, as EAP providers and employers with common challenges, we should be aiming for a stage where data is being shared on what works, when and for which conditions and types of employee.”