Legal & General have this morning held a breakfast roundtable with Esther McVey MP, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Employment, to discuss the role of Britain’s line managers in managing sickness and absence in the workplace.
Speaking at the event, Ms McVey said: “For the sickness and absence review’s conclusions to be implemented effectively, line managers will be the crucial front line force, they are the unsung heroes of the British workplace”.
Commenting on the roundtable, Diane Buckley, Managing Director of Legal & General’s Group Income Protection Business, said: “Every year hundreds of thousands of people’s journey to long term sickness benefits begins in the workplace. We want to work with Britain’s line managers to help provide them with the support they need to cut sickness and absence”.
In recent years responsibility for the management of sickness and absence has largely been devolved to line managers. In the recent CIPD absence management survey it was estimated that “line managers take primary responsibility for managing short-term absence in two-thirds of organisations overall and more than three-quarters in the public sector. They take responsibility for managing long-term absence in 55% of organisations overall and for 73% of the public sector”.
The roundtable was joined by a range of specialists in the subject area such as Vanessa Sallows, Legal & General’s head of early intervention. Nicky Richards, HR Manager at Legal & General, also spoke about the recent Wellbeing Initiative piloted in Legal & General offices in Cardiff and Hove which, among other initiatives, provided an extensive training programme via the provider ‘Stand to Reason’ for line managers on emotional wellbeing. The programme provided managers with;
- A greater awareness of emotional wellbeing issues in the workplace; .
- A clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities; .
- Knowledge to support members of their team with emotional wellbeing issues.
From November 2010 to April 2011 the sickness absence figures were 15% better across the pilot group than for the same period in 2009-10. Legal & General also saved £68,535 over the course of the 6 months because of the reduction in sickness absence.
Commenting on the scheme Nicky Richards said:
“Our own internal wellbeing pilot has demonstrated that early intervention and wellbeing programmes alongside proactive line management can have a significant impact on absence rates in businesses. Our experiences highlight the importance of intervening before people become unwell and having the appropriate support in place to help people at work when they are ill.”
