Employers 'should do all they can' to prevent absence

The nation's workers should do all they can to ensure that their staff are not forced to take long leaves of absence, it has been urged.

Professor Cary Cooper, Distinguished Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University, acknowledged that illness is "a fact of working life" and affects all but the very hardiest workers but it is not always an inevitability.

He explained that the country should be trying to prevent long-term absence as much as possible and that can be done by firstly looking at ways of flexible working to help those who are able to work but perhaps not able to come into the office or work set hours.

Secondly, it is important not to encourage employees to feel obliged to come in to work when they are ill, as a culture of presenteeism can be damaging.

"In the longer term employers can address absence by ensuring that they do not instil a culture of long working hours, which ultimately lead to demoralized staff and increased sickness, and by training line managers to be fully able to deal with absence management rather than leaving it to chance," Professor Cooper explained.

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Posted by John Oak and Wayne Bly

Filed: 06-02-2012