HC Global

I asked our intrepid investigator Sherlock HR-Olmes to provide us with a quick insight. This is what he came up with as a series of extracts:

[From the summary] 'Until recently managing sickness absence has not been a priority for any of the businesses within the Department for Transport.'

[Extracted from conclusions]
'1. The DSA and the DVLA do not have a good understanding of the reasons for higher rates of sickness absence in some parts of their businesses and have only recently undertaken research to address this weakness.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'2. The DVLA has succeeded in reducing short term sickness, but long term absence has increased and now accounts for 62% of total absence.' !!!!

'3. Management of staff on long term sick leave has generally been poor, and the DoT, for example, has only in recent months reviewed long-term cases and taken disciplinary action where appropriate.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'4. The central Department and the Government Car Despatch Agency have no annual targets for reducing sickness absence, whilst the DVLA’s target is only a one day reduction from the previous year’s performance.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'5. The Department’s recent Capability Review found that only 47% of the Department’s staff are proud to work for it and recommended that the new Permanent Secretary should use his vision of the Department to re-energise and motivate staff.' !!!!!!!!!!!!

'6. The Capability Review found that the role of the Department in relation to its agencies and its oversight of Human Resources and other functions is unclear.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'7. Sickness absence is sometimes used inappropriately by staff in place of annual leave.' (remembering that there's 30 days holiday! S. HR-O) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'8. The Highways Agency has shown that if used to good effect, practices such as ‘return to work interviews’ help line managers identify and deal with underlying issues, such as general ill health and low morale.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Amen to that

Some other notable extracts from the main report:

'Managers at the DSA plan their staff resources on the basis of targeted absence rates, but those at the DVLA factored existing levels of sickness absence into their resource planning assumptions each year. They are therefore in a position to deliver their business objectives without achieving reductions from existing levels, giving them less incentive to reduce sickness absence levels.'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'More than 1,000 staff (over 13%) at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency took more than 21 days in sickness absence, and seven staff at the Driving Standards Agency and nine staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency were absent for the whole year.' !!!!!!!!

'The Department and agencies nonetheless need to develop a better understanding of the underlying reasons for high levels of sickness absence. They have undertaken some work in recent months, but at present the information is either incomplete or the evidence is contradictory.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'The Agency has not benchmarked its sickness absence data against other employers in the locality, such as local authorities and the health service, or carried out any joint analyses with them. It is keen to compare performance, but other employers have been reluctant to release relevant information.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!nice one!

'At every agency, women account for a higher share of sickness absence than their share of full time equivalent staff numbers, comprising around 41% of the overall workforce in 2006 but accounting for 52% of all working days lost to sickness. This finding is in line with general trends identified in wider surveys of sickness absence. In particular, women make up 64% of the DVLA's workforce and nearly two-thirds are under the age of 40. Pregnancy-related sickness is a particular problem for the Agency, accounting for 8% of absences in the year. There is more sickness absence in the lower grades at all agencies.........' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'All parts of the Departmental group have an underlying strategy that absence management is the responsibility of line managers, with guidance and support available from human resources teams and occupational health services and senior managers monitoring performance.........Successful management of sickness absence, therefore, depends on line managers applying policies and procedures appropriately and consistently, informed by regular, good quality, timely data.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (motherhood and apple pie)

'It is also the responsibility of senior officials, Chief Executives and local managers to make staff feel valued and keep them motivated.......the Department has a spread of management capability and some managers are better than others. The centre of the Department has invested a lot of effort in the last year in a leadership development programme, and .....have also introduced leadership training which each Chief Executive has attended together with their managers. In 2006, the DVLA also carried out a profiling exercise on its managers to identify where they needed to strengthen management capacity; to reallocate to other jobs those managers whose management skills could not be improved through training; and to move managers with good leadership skills to work with people.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (what is the problem we are trying to solve?)

'The Agency has also piloted the redesigning of some jobs to make them more interesting, resulting in reduced sickness absence rates in the piloted areas. Allowing staff in its customer enquiry group more flexibility in using their annual leave so that they can take a day’s holiday at very short notice has secured a 63% reduction in short-term sick leave over three months. Previously, managers would have refused such short notice requests and employees would have taken sick leave instead.............all staff are entitled to an annual leave allowance of 30 days when they take up employment, which in the Department’s view should be sufficient to cater for most unforeseen requirements for short periods of absence without recourse to casual sick absence.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'It now seeks details of applicants’ medical histories on initial recruitment and, where it has concerns about their fitness for appointment, refers cases immediately for medical advice.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'There has been inadequate sharing of good practices between agencies in the past.' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Sherlock for your report extracts.....

As for me, I'm too apoplectic to comment save the fact that every manager and every HR professional should read this.............

There are some real insights and some basic questions to answer................

Of course I can't wait for the DVLA to win a prize for the best turnaround by reducing their absenteeism by xxxxx% next year. As I have commented before why is it allowed to get so bad before good management is actioned - more skilled incompetence?

For the DVLA just one question remains for both managers and HR:

What were they smoking? What a pity they didn't call for external expertise..........