Two firsts make a right!

Leading health and wellbeing solutions provider, FirstAssist, has formed an exclusive partnership with FirstHealth Solutions, creating a formidable alliance in the delivery of Sickness Absence Management. Following detailed reviews of the market, both organisations identified each other as the perfect partner to provide employee risk management solutions to the corporate and SME markets.

FirstAssist has been working closely with FirstHealth Solutions to develop a market leading Employee Wellbeing Service over recent months. The new offering uses FirstAssist’s employee risk management expertise, combined with its call centre capabilities and FirstHealth Solutions’ leading edge COLLATE software system*.

Having piloted the service with FirstAssist’s own 1100 employees, the new service is ready to go to market. Using the expertise and resources available to both FirstAssist and FirstHealth Solutions, the system has been designed to be the most effective and flexible solution for the Absence Management and Employee Wellbeing needs of employers today. Combined with FirstAssistís insurance, occupational health and rehabilitation capabilities, this creates a unique ability to provide a complete range of services to todayís employer helping them to improve productivity in the workforce.

FirstAssist Chief Executive, Tim Ablett confirmed, Employee absenteeism costs business an estimated 11.6bn a year. An average 7 working days are lost through sickness per employee, each employee costing businesses an average 476 to provide cover**. Reactive management of absence has cost the UK economy far too much for far too long.î

ìOur new service will help businesses effectively monitor and manage absence. We are delighted to be combining FirstAssist’s own range of employee health management services in an exclusive partnership with the best provider of absence management software in the market. Together we are delivering a service that will make a real difference to employee wellbeing and business productivity. The result of this partnership enables employers to meet the demands of the National Rehabilitation plan and Absence Certification in a way that benefits both them and their employees.

Keith Lewis, Managing Director of FirstHealth Solutions commented, FirstAssist is an ideal partner for us. They share our belief in positive health management delivered through technology that integrates with client’s HR systems, while providing easy access to detailed real-time data. We look forward to working together as we continue to develop our service offering and bring an innovative range of cohesive health solutions to the market.