Survey of tools and resources available to employers to manage, record and monitor sickness absence

This study was established under the Government Setting an Example (now part of the wider Public Services Programme) programme of work set up by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) as part of their commitment to improving health and safety management in the public sector.

The report provides an essential guide to sickness absence recording software applications and services, and also to information sources and other resources for absence management. It is primarily written for UK employers and managers seeking assistance with recording sickness absence and understanding the issues involved in the management of absence in the workplace.

Section seven of the report describes the wide range of sickness absence recording applications and services that are available, with links to sources of further information.

Applications and services are individually described and listed within the following categories:

Standalone sickness absence recording applications
Hosted absence recording applications
Human Resource and Time and Attendance Applications
Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP)
Consultancy and health services
Other sections of the report include a general introduction to the principles underlying effective absence management and a review of the requirements and key features of absence recording applications and services. There is a review of the data that needs to be recorded in an effective sickness absence recording tool and the coding of the causes of sickness absence is also dealt with in some detail. Differences between sickness absence levels in public and private sector are introduced and the particular HR requirements of public sector organisations are summarised. A chapter on the Data Protection Act describes the requirements of the act and how it impacts on the recording of sickness absence and other HR data. Section eight introduces eight key causes of work related sickness absence and includes sources for further information on each of the causes.

Research for this report identified important sources of sickness absence management material available across a wide spectrum of websites. Section nine of the report lists these organisations and includes links to the websites, a description of the organisation and a guide to the material and information that they hold relevant to sickness absence management. This establishes a valuable absence management reference resource.