Wednesday 5 June 2013 2:00pm BST Employers have to expect a certain amount of staff sickness absence and many implement initiatives to keep such leave to a minimum. However, when employees suffer from conditions that can mean many weeks or months  More...
17 May 2013 12:54

The Government has indicated that employers may, in principle, be able to overrule a GP's advice in a fit note as to whether or not a person is potentially fit to return to work. The little-noticed change was incorporated into new guidance on the fi  More...
01 May 2013 00:01

The Government has pledged to establish a new national health and work assessment and advisory service by the end of next year at the latest, in a move that promises to bring profound changes to the profile and prominence of occupational health. The  More...
30 January 2013 00:01

Employers will be able to make use of a new independent assessment and advisory service in order to address sickness absence and get employees back to work, as part of measures unveiled by the Government today. The proposal forms part of the Governm  More...
17 January 2013 16:16

Line managers still tend to be the "gatekeepers" for absence recording in most organisations, latest research has argued. The study of the use of triggers in managing absence carried out by XpertHR, Occupational Health's sister resource, poll  More...
21 November 2012 00:01

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) dismissed 672 people last year for unsatisfactory attendance, a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request has revealed. Average sick days per department Department Average numb  More...
19 October 2012 15:17

Falling absence levels may point to a rise in presenteeism rather than successful absence management strategies, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Research by the CIPD and private health insurer SimplyHealth f  More...
09 October 2012 10:07

Government assessments of people's fitness to work have revealed what occupational health practitioners have known for a long time: a minority of individuals that are on sickness leave are only pretending to be ill. Jane Fairburn looks at how occupation  More...
01 October 2012 09:00

Some of the progress made in recent years in reducing workplace absence stalled last year, with absence from work largely unchanged on 2010, latest research from Occupational Health's sister resource XpertHR has concluded. The annual survey of absen  More...
04 September 2012 09:00

Chaotic absence management is damaging welfare and productivity, according to research from insurance firm Ellipse. CEO John Ritchie reveals the findings. Workplace absence has become a hot topic at a time when British businesses can ill afford to b  More...
02 July 2012 09:00

Labour turnover and absence are the two most fundamental metrics that an organisation can track in order to assess its health - and no organisation can control what it is not measuring. Research on absence shows that organisations which record abse  More...
16 May 2012 16:04

Employers need to act now to avoid disruption caused by absence and misconduct during the 2012 Olympics. Kate Bland, associate solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, provides a checklist for employers. Refresh workplace policies Employers  More...
15 May 2012 12:35

New Year health and fitness resolutions are responsible for a huge spike in the number of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and sickness absences, according to research. A study by physiotherapy provider Physio Med has concluded that over-ambitious   More...
25 April 2012 10:00

With several high-profile events taking place in the UK this year, employers may experience higher absence rates. David Prosser explores the steps that organisations should consider to prevent major disruption to business. According to a report by t  More...
16 April 2012 09:00

An independent review of workplace health has suggested a key role for occupational health in addressing the UK's sickness absence problem. Nic Paton reports. In December 2007, Occupational Health magazine described Dame Carol Black's groundbreaking  More...
01 April 2012 09:00

Take-up of the Government's Fit for Work service pilots has proved disappointingly low so far, according to an evaluation by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Eleven pilots were launched in March 2010, following the recommendations in Dame   More...
01 March 2012 10:23

One of my employees has called to say that he's not going to be in for work - and won't be in for the next few days - due to the adverse weather. I know that he has young children who attend a nursery that might be closed, but he doesn't live that far a  More...
08 February 2012 15:39

A conference on managing employee health and absence, organised by XpertHR Events, took place on 23 November 2011. Employee wellbeing specialist Dr Bridget Juniper looks back on the topics covered. The world economy continues to teeter on the brink,  More...
06 January 2012 09:00

A government-commissioned review of sickness absence has recommended that an independent assessment service should take over return-to-work assessments from GPs. The Independent Review of Sickness Absence also proposes that employers that take   More...
21 November 2011 14:30

The vulnerability of workers who take time off, or are signed off, work because of sickness has been highlighted by this year's absence survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The CIPD's annual absence management rese  More...
31 October 2011 09:28