Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsEmployment lawWellbeing

White Paper outlines employer health role

by Michael Millar 23 Nov 2004
by Michael Millar 23 Nov 2004

The Government is putting pressure on employers to take responsibility for the health of the nation.

The Choosing Health White Paper dedicates a 20-page chapter to the connection between health and work – the first time the Government has drawn up comprehensive guidelines for employers.

The Department of Health believes two million people suffer an illness they believe has been caused by, or made worse by, their work.

But aside from the ban on smoking in the workplace, the White Paper is marked in its lack of compulsion on employers – opting instead for general advice and numerous case studies.

Ben Willmott, employee relations adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, called for more specifics on how the suggestions could be applied.

“This is an issue that the Government needs to develop a coherent strategy on,” he said. “Employers are improving how they manage well-being issues, but it is still quite a marginal concern for the majority of employers.

“The Government needs to come up with some specific suggestions, especially regarding how SMEs can come to terms with getting access to occupational health when there may be cost issues,” he said.

The White Paper calls on employers not to wait until staff are fully recovered from sickness before they try to get them back to work as “inactivity compounds poor health”. It recommends that “healthcare professionals, wherever they work, need to start from the point of view that getting people back to work is likely to benefit their long-term health”.

To aid this process, the White Paper encourages employers to use temporary job modifications to help people back, even if they are not able to do their usual job.

This will require building a three-way partnership between health professionals, individuals and employers, according to the White Paper.
However, it also warns employers that work can be detrimental to staff health if they do not have sufficient job control and have an imbalance between effort and reward.

Warren Wayne, an employment lawyer at Bird & Bird said employers needed to be careful of breaching legal duties to staff.

“When bringing a staff member back to work early, employers need to think about the duty of care to the employee who is ill as well as its duty to other employees. There is a duty of care on employers not to damage employee health. There is also an implied duty in an employment contract, which says that employers must provide a safe system of work. This could lead to claims for constructive dismissal.”

The White Paper also urges companies to focus on the root causes of stress by reducing job monotony through the use of good HR practices. 

For guidance on how to analyse sickness absence data, go to  www.personneltoday.com/indepth   or visit www.personneltoday.com/24017.article to find out how to manage the health of your staff

Work and health in numbers

– 1.38 million – the number of unemployed in the UK, the lowest since 1975

– 2 million – the number of employees who suffer an illness they believe has been caused by, or made worse by, their work

– 3.74 million – how many staff work longer than the 48-hours laid down by the Working Time Directive

– 40 million – the amount of working days that are lost each year to occupational ill health and injuries

– 11bn – the cost of sickness absence to employers, which amounts to 16 per cent of salary costs

– 8 hours per week – how much more productive healthy workers are than unhealthy ones

– 10-20 per cent – the potential reduction in absence if companies run health and well-being programmes

Source: Department of Health/Towers Perrin HR consultancy



Avatar
Michael Millar

previous post
Aligning HR with business goals is the key to success
next post
Unions focus on four big issues prior to election

You may also like

One in five employers planning ‘no jab no...

19 May 2022

BNP Paribas banker accused of ’emotional terrorism’ wins...

19 May 2022

How should HR handle the highest inflation in...

18 May 2022

How to respond to an HMRC furlough enquiry

18 May 2022

AI adoption: Skills shortages means UK lagging behind...

18 May 2022

Nurses leaving due to pressure and workplace culture

18 May 2022

Ethnic diversity: report highlights disparities in school leadership

18 May 2022

Accreditation scheme will ‘encourage LGBT+ people to be...

17 May 2022

Bald move: Tribunal was right in sex-related harassment...

17 May 2022

Number of working people with disability up 1.3...

17 May 2022

  • The importance of being an ethical leader and how to become one PROMOTED | What is ethical leadership?...Read more
  • RPO Report: 2022, The Year to Outsource PROMOTED | Employers should be overwhelmed with choice...Read more
  • Report: Enabling organisational agility through talent & people success PROMOTED | Work has been challenged...Read more
  • Employee Trends 2022 report PROMOTED | Edenred research on employees analysed the key employees’ trends for 2022...Read more
  • How finance apprenticeships can boost business PROMOTED | As the world’s most forward-thinking professional accountancy body...Read more
  • Paul Devoy: Showing appreciation to the Investors in People community PROMOTED | Ask most people what comes to mind when you mention Investors in People...Read more
  • White paper: How digitalisation can support evolving occupational health PROMOTED | Download this free white paper to discover how digitalisation can help occupational health meet emerging challenges...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+