The Occupational Health Business Ltd was awarded a one day a week contract with a Public sector organisation to carry out sickness absence clinics.

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After a couple of weeks it became clear that very few referrals were coming in and those employees who were referred had been off for many months. We approached our client with some ideas about how the referral levels might be increased to make better use of the weekly clinic time.

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Process>
We agreed with the client that we begin to carry out some Management training on ‘how and when to refer to OH’ during our weekly visit using our free appointment slots. Sometimes it was just an informal talk to one Manager about referrals, but sometimes the weekly clinic coincided with Management meeting and we were able to get the training across to larger numbers.



We collected feedback from the Managers and the results were good. We were adding value and increasing the numbers of referrals week on week. Due to the success of this ad hoc training, we were then requested to undertake a more formal training programme for all managers. We structured the programme around short key messages on attendance management which were easy
for the Managers to implement straight away.



Key Messages >

• Don’t wait for the sick note to arrive to take action.
• Refer to OH before the absence occurs…what have you noticed?
• SPEAK to your OH Adviser about any employee concerns you have.
   

Results >
 

The weekly OH clinic saw an increase in referral levels and the overall sickness absence levels reduced as Managers began to refer much earlier. Managers also booked slots in the clinic for themselves if they had a situation they wanted to discuss and this provided them with support and guidance to manage employee health issues much better. Due to the success of this initial training further initiatives were planned.​