RESEARCH REPORT 310 - HSE: Information about …

1 HSEH ealth & SafetyExecutiveManaging health at work recording and monitoring Information on sickness absence including work relatedness Prepared by the Institute of Occupational Medicine for the health and Safety Executive 2005 RESEARCH REPORT 310 HSEH ealth & SafetyExecutiveManaging health at work recording and monitoring Information on sickness absence including work relatedness Peter Ritchie, Hilary Cowie, Mairi Graham, Peter Hutchison, Rachel Mulholland, Alison Melrose Institute of Occupational Medicine RESEARCH Park North Riccarton Edinburgh EH14 4AP Dr Adele Pilkington Well Work Abbey Business Centre Woodside House 20-23 Woodside Place GLASGOW G3 7QF A Confederation of British Industry annual survey of absence and labour turnover in 2002 (CBI, 2002) showed that time lost due to absence was on average days per employee and the average cost of absence per employee was estimated to be 476; equivalent to a cost to UK business as a whole of billion.

2 It is an aim of the HSE s occupational health strategy for Great Britain Securing health Together to achieve a 30% reduction, by 2010, in the number of work days lost due to work-related ill- health . Absence management is a practice used with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success across sections of UK business and public services. Currently Information on sickness absence is collected in many different ways and there is a need for a standardised recording system so that progress towards this target can be measured. The development of such a tool would also allow the Information to be used more effectively in monitoring work-related sickness absence by combining data and examining trends, so informing decisions on relevant workplace interventions to improve the work environment and help prevent work-related ill health . The overall aim of this RESEARCH and development programme was to investigate, design, develop and validate suitable tools for recording sickness-absence, including a recording system, a classification system to allow the systematic coding of causes of absence, and non-specialist guidance to their use and sickness absence management more generally.

3 The work took place in three major parts. Phase 1 conducted RESEARCH into current methods and systems for sickness absence recording, analysis and management, and related issues. Phase 2 developed sickness absence recording tools consisting of a PC based recording tool, a sickness absence cause classification scheme and guidance materials to assist in sickness absence management. The third phase conducted a validation exercise to test and revise the recording tool. This work has successfully provided these key outputs in the sickness absence recording tool system, classification scheme, and the sickness absence management guidance materials, and their validation and revision. The products are reported on and are available for review via accompanying appendices, and SART software. Issues and potential methods for the ongoing development and distribution of the tools are presented and discussed.

4 This REPORT and the work it describes were funded by the health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy. HSE BOOKS Crown copyright 2005 First published 2005 ISBN 0 7176 2958 9 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to: Licensing Division, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ or by e-mail to ii Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their thanks to all of the various contributors to the RESEARCH , in particular the respondents to the questionnaire and validation studies, and the participants in the focus groups and face-to-face interviews, who gave so much of their time and made the project possible.

5 The IOM is most grateful for the sponsorship of this project by the HSE. Also for the involvement, help and advice of the HSE representatives involved with the project, in particular Keith Wiley, Stephen Taylor, June Manson, Alan Spence and John Ives. iii iv CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY VII 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT 3 3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 5 4 OVERVIEW OF GENERAL PROGRAMME OF WORK UNDERTAKEN AND PROJECT TIMETABLE 7 5 PHASE 1: REVIEW OF EXISTING DATA, Information GATHERING AND POSTAL SURVEY 9 Background 9 Literature Review 9 Review of Existing Sickness Absence Recording Software 10 Postal Questionnaire Survey 14 Focus Groups 17 Follow-up Interviews 21 Workplace visits 24 Conclusions and Implications from Phase 1 for Development of Recording Tool 27 6 PHASE 2.

6 DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SICKNESS ABSENCE MANAGEMENT TOOLS 29 Introudction to Programme of Work for Phase 2 29 Development of the sickness absence classification scheme 29 Development and Production of Sickness Absence Guidance 33 Specification and Design of the Sickness Absence Recording Tool 36 Implementation of the Sickness Absence Recording Tool 41 7 PHASE 3: VALIDATION STUDY 47 Validation Study Planning, Recruitment and Operation of Survey 47 Results of the Validation Survey 51 Updates to the sart database software and associated materials following validation testing 63 8 CONCLUSIONS, ONGOING AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 65 Introduction 65 Summary of Project Outputs and Achievements 66 Ongoing and Possible Future Development and Deployment of sickness absence management Tools 71 9 REFERENCES 79 APPENDIX 1: PHASE 1 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 81 APPENDIX 2: DETAILED RESULTS FROM POSTAL QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY 93 APPENDIX 3: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION SCHEDULE 119 APPENDIX 4.

7 INTERVIEW DISCUSSION SCHEDULE 121 v APPENDIX 5: SICKNESS ABSENCE CAUSE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME 125 APPENDIX 6: MANUAL OF SICKNESS ABSENCE MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE NOTES 137 APPENDIX 7: DOCUMENT OF UNDERSTANDING, JUNE 2003 181 APPENDIX 8: DATA DICTIONARY OF SART IMPLEMENTATION 195 APPENDIX 9: SICKNESS ABSENCE RECORDING TOOL (SART) USER MANUAL AND HELP 201 vi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Several surveys of the extent of sickness absence have been carried out across the UK. For example the Confederation of British Industry annual survey of absence and labour turnover in 2002 (CBI, 2002) showed that time lost due to absence was on average days per employee ( days for non-manual workers and days for manual workers) and the average cost of absence per employee was estimated to be 476; equivalent to a cost to UK business as a whole of billion. Genuine minor illnesses were believed to be the major cause of absence, and most absence was caused by occasional short-term absence, rather than longer-term absence.

8 Other comparable surveys in recent years provide similar evidence of the increasingly negative impact of sickness absence to employees and business alike. Absence management is a practice used with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success across sections of UK business and public services. This project arose from the identification by the health and Safety Executive (HSE) of the need for an agreed structure, and accompanying guidelines, to help employers, particularly those in the SME sector with little or no systems in place, to collect, classify and record sickness absence data, in a rational and standardised way. In particular it would allow the identification and management of potential work-related causes, in a way that is useful to businesses, safety representatives and employees alike. The work of this project had three major parts. In Phase 1 RESEARCH was conducted into current methods and systems for sickness absence recording, analysis and management, and related issues.

9 In Phase 2 sickness absence recording tools were developed consisting of a PC based recording tool, a sickness absence cause classification scheme and guidance materials to assist in sickness absence management. In Phase 3 a validation exercise to test and revise the recording tools was completed. This REPORT is therefore just one of the deliverables of the project. In addition, the other main deliverables are: an interim REPORT to HSE upon completion of Phase 1; the sickness absence recording tool software; the sickness absence classification scheme; and the sickness absence guidance materials. Aims and objectives The overall aim of the work programme was to design, develop and validate suitable tools for recording sickness-absence, including the recording system, a classification system to allow the systematic coding of causes of absence, and non-specialist guidance to their use and sickness absence management more generally.

10 The specific objectives of the work programme were: To determine by postal questionnaire, face-to-face interview and through focus groups the range of systems currently used to record sickness absence data across the UK and the aspects of such systems which are, or would be judged to be, most useful by companies from different industry sizes and sectors; To provide to HSE, at the end of the first six months of the project, an interim REPORT summarising the findings of Phase 1, and the directions for subsequent development; To design and develop a simple computerised system for the recording of sickness absence data; vii To develop a classification system for ill health and injuries causing sickness absence, that allows for the identification of work-relatedness and that could be linked, as far as is practicable, with existing standardised classification systems; To develop non-specialist guidance materials for the informed use of the recording tool and classification system; To validate the recording tool, classification scheme and guidance in a range of companies of different sizes and sectors; To provide to HSE copies of the developed recording tool, the classification scheme, the guidance materials and a final REPORT describing the work of the project.