Absence Assessment - is your organisation taking it seriously?
Few employers have a comprehensive understanding of good absence management practices; fewer still have these policies and practices in place. Poor practices can often lead to unnecessary and prolonged absences.
This is where an Absence Management Assessment can be crucial – it can provide a baseline of how the employer is faring right now, providing focus on what needs attention, and which areas to tackle first. It can also provide guidance on what improvements can be made as well as highlighting any areas of good practice.
What’s more, proactive management of sickness absence can really improve a company’s bottom line. It is important for an employer to gauge the effectiveness of their own policies and procedures in order to aspire to and maintain best practice.
WorkMatters can offer your clients a full absence management service for their workplace in order to gain a clear overview of their current absence management performance.
The assessments help determine where current policies and procedures might be deviating from best practice and where efforts should be concentrated for maximum return.
There are three types of assessment available:
1. FREE OF CHARGE online Self Assessment
2. High Level Assessment – typically taking 3-4
hours
3. Full Assessment – typically taking three days
Flash Plugin Required
This video requires the Flash Plugin to be installed on your computer. Please click the button below if you would like to install it.
1. FREE online Self Assessment
The online Absence Management (also known as Disability Management) Self Assessment is designed to provide the user with an overview of the elements generally considered essential for an effective absence management programme. The results will offer a snapshot as to whether these elements exist within an organisation’s absence management programme and also provide a generally accepted `best practice` description for each question.
While the Full and High Level Assessments are designed to offer a more sophisticated analysis of an organisation’s absence management programme and its performance, completion of the online Self Assessment will provide a basic understanding of the core aspects necessary for an effective Absence Management programme within an organisation.
To take the FREE online Absence Management Self Assessment for your organisation, click here.
Please note that the `best practice` answers provided in the questionnaire are recommendations by the International Disability Management Standards Council (IDMSC) and are not endorsed by Unum, WorkMatters or the Unum Group of Companies.
2. High Level Assessment
As a good preparatory step, and prior to undergoing a Full Assessment, some workplaces may wish to use a shorter assessment which allows a workplace, over the course of approximately 3-4 hours, to obtain an overview of their current absence management performance.
Whilst the Full Absence Management Assessment looks at information obtained from a number of sources, including written evidence, consensus focus groups and employee surveys, this High Level Assessment applies an interview-style approach.
Why would an organisation choose a High level Assessment?
- Their work schedule may not allow them the flexibility to collect the information required of the Full Assessment
- Some workplaces may simply prefer to obtain a `snapshot` of their current practices to give them some ideas as to how to proceed with their programme
- Some organisations are at the early stages of developing an absence management programme and this is the first step to determine what they might have in place before proceeding.
3. Full Assessment
A Full Absence Assessment typically takes three days:
Day 1: our assessors will look at the
organisation’s existing absence
management documentation;
Day 2: assessors survey a number of
randomly selected employees -
representing both management
and non-management - for their
views on the organisation’s
absence management
programme;
Day 3: our assessors meet with a group
representing both employees
and management to explore a
wide range of issues relating to
the organisation’s absence
management programme.
Upon completion of the assessment, we provide a report; not only giving the organisation an overall rating, but also an analysis of our findings and detailed recommendations for strengthening the absence management programme.
For further details and the fee structure for the Full or High Level Absence Management Assessments please e-mail WorkMatters@unum.co.uk, call us on 01306 874 257 or download the product information.
For further details and the fee structure for the Full or High Level Absence please e-mail, WorkMatters@unum.co.uk or call us on 01306 874 257.