CREATING VALUE THROUGH OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH INTERVENTION

Overview

The management of health risks is vital if employers are to control the costs arising from physical and mental ill-health whilst adding employee value through higher job satisfaction and productivity.

There are many cost factors associated with ill-health, the principal ones being:

		Labour turnover;
		Sickness absence (and the wider implications of temporary replacement costs and lost productivity);
		Employer liability insurance premiums;
		Private medical insurance;
		Permanent health insurance/ill-health retirement.

The aim of a professionally led occupational health service, working closely with HR and line management, is to identify and reduce health risks in the workplace, promote the optimum state of mental, physical, and social well-being of people at work, and to contain the costs of work related ill-health and accidents by:

		Ensuring compliance with the law;
		Undertaking appropriate health surveillance based on workplace health risks: e.g. working with substances that may cause asthma, dermatitis etc;
		Providing health promotion through health education and health screening to ensure that employees are aware of the workplace and individual health risks that may cause ill-health, and how to reduce them.

Measuring Health and Safety Risk Issues - and reducing costs

Many health and safety issues are measurable and can consequently be effectively managed. We can help you identify and measure the symptoms of costly ill-health in your organisation, and formulate appropriate policies and procedures. Consider the following examples of ways in which occupational health intervention can help you:

		Labour Turnover
		Staff who are ill, or who are unable to cope, often simply leave the organisation. As occupational health professionals, we can assist HR to analyse labour turnover trends to determine health-related contributory factors, and assist with the development of initiatives to promote staff retention.
		Sickness Absence
		To address sickness absence, it is important first to understand the absence pattern within your organisation. We as occupational health professionals can help you do this by analysing sickness absence at a number of levels: department by department, by location, by job categories, by frequency or duration of absence. This analysis provides the information required to determine whether there are any significant trends that need to be addressed, such as particularly high absence amongst one group of employees, as well as data on the most common reasons for absence. Once the causes are known (e.g. mental ill-health and musculoskeletal injuries), we can help you to take action to reduce the risks relating to these illnesses or injuries. As well as identifying the nature of absence within your organisation, we can help you put in place effective attendance management systems which will contribute to reducing the cost of sickness absence and improve productivity and morale.
		Employers Liability Insurance - (ELI)
		Employees now expect a much healthier working environment than in previous years and tolerance of occupational risk has greatly diminished. Consequently, injured employees are much more ready to claim compensation for work-related mental/physical ill-health or injury (e.g. stress, upper limb disorder etc.) and this is reflected in the rapid rise of compensation and litigation costs. Working closely with management, we can help you to identify and reduce these risks with the objective of establishing a sound basis for negotiating reductions in the ELI premiums.
		Private Medical Insurance - (PMI)
		Another health symptom which needs careful study is private medical insurance claims experience. Analysis of this data allows you to identify any ill-health trends and determine whether there may be a work-related cause for some of them. We can analyse this data, monitor trends, identify work-related risks, and help you take action to reduce them.
		Permanent Health Insurance - (PHI)
		PHI claims provide another source of information about the health of the organisation and its employees. When employers provide (and pay for) this benefit for their employees, they expect the insurer to provide benefits when an employee has been absent for six months. However, the employer and the employee are frequently disappointed when the claim is denied. This usually occurs because the organisation does not have either the access to professional advice or an effective mechanism to assess an employee’s clinical condition, fitness for the job, or ability to undertake modified work. If you provide PHI to your employees, we can help you reduce the incidence of long term absence by intervening in the case earlier and developing return to work programmes. In cases where an employee is likely to be absent for more than six months, we can assist you in assessing their eligibility for PHI.
		Ill-Health Retirement
		In organisations that experience a high number of ill-health retirements, the outcome may be reflected in depleted pension funds which will have an adverse ‘knock on’ effect for future pensioners. An occupational health professional can identify health risks which may potentially lead to ill-health retirement, and can manage and reduce them. We can also work with you to assess eligibility for ill-health retirement, as well as develop policies and procedures, to help you effectively manage the ill-health retirement process.

Providing an Integrated Approach to Health Management

Rather than just react to health problems, our services are geared to helping organisations develop proactive integrated health management programmes that can create an environment that will enhance the health and performance of employees, as well as contain the costs associated with ill-health and accidents.

By integrating occupational health into the management of the business, we have found that organisations are better equipped to promote a healthy workplace. This results in a healthier, happier and more productive workforce, improving the efficiency of the business and helping the organisation to achieve its corporate goals.

LINKS

To review our occupational health services, click on Health Assessments or Health Management. For examples of cases and their outcomes, click on Case Studies.