In 2007 £13.3 billion was lost by UK firms as a result of workers taking time off. Assess the possible cost of absence to your business.

Having identified this area of concern to organisations Vi²dus has recently developed ‘Work Wellbeing in Action™’ as a direct response to assist organisations and enterprises in coping with this increasingly important area of people management. The Vi²dus revolutionary approach is mapped to the HSE 6 Management Standards.

The Vi²dus approach to stress and absence management offers a more dynamic intervention aligned and embedded with the organisation’s management processes. The interventions help to raise staff awareness, address work life balance and ensure everyone takes responsibility for their own wellbeing and monitoring of their stress levels.. Organisational responsibility and accountability is re-enforced through supervisors, team leaders and managers in the management of their staff. The Vi²dus model tackles the stress or absence issue before it affects the performance of an individual, and helps minimise subsequent organisational costs.

While many providers offer work related stress and absence solutions by focusing on the treatment of the stressor itself and providing reactive support, the fact is that counselling in itself is not enough. There are a growing numbers of high profile legal cases which have found in favour of the employee where the employer has failed to address the issue of stress within the workplace. In essence, these individuals may have strategies to cope with the stress but the stressors remain unaffected and often unchallenged leaving the organisation liable and vulnerable.

Vi²dus can provide the solution. What ever the size of your business or organisation Vi²dus will be able to assess your absence, advise on ways to monitor stress and absence and provide your staff with the skills to manage business as usual as well as during times of change. (See change portfolio)

The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of complete physical and mental wellbeing.” and states;

“Stress at work has become a major public health problem…While industries in developed countries have addressed chemical and physical sources of risks, they are now faced with a new, more insidious, difficulty: the threat to the quality of life of their employees. Research has demonstrated that stress has consequences on mental health, but also on physical health, be it directly (such as high blood pressure, back pain, susceptibility to infections…), or indirectly, through accident-prone behaviour, smoking, alcohol consumption, and unfortunately, even suicide… life expectancy has been long demonstrated to be correlated to stressful life events. Absence at work has been shown to be one of the most sensitive predictors of health outcomes.”

Click for World Health Organisation Website

The days when the health of an organisation was only determined by the bottom line are disappearing. The messages and evidence from key government departments would indicate that we choose not to listen to the concerns of our employees’ health and well-being at our peril. There are real cost implications to all businesses. In some cases stress related costs can be greater than 30% of all sickness costs.

Stress within the workplace often manifests itself in higher sickness and absence rates, higher staff turnover than normal, lower performance levels, poor health and safety and strained industrial relations. However, there is significant research suggesting that raising awareness amongst staff plus developing the skills of those front line managers dealing directly with staff is the key to improving stress management in the workplace and improving these performance indicators.

The ACAS³ view is that;

“ Stress is often a symptom of poor employment relations and can seriously affect productivity. Organisations who talk regularly with their employees and have sound systems and procedures in place for dealing with issues like absence and discipline are much more likely to avoid work-related stress and to be able to deal with potentially stressful situations when they arise .”

Click for ACAS Website

The Government paper ‘Health, work and wellbeing - caring for our future’ encourages enterprises to take a pro-active positive approach to workplace health. Guidance is being produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Department for Work and Pensions. This guidance places the health of the organisation’s workforce at the very core of the business requirements and is supported by key organisations such as Trades Unions and the Institute of Directors.

Vi²dus’s new initiative takes the concept of stress awareness one stage further by offering solutions to enterprises of all sizes on tackling the issue of work related stress and managing absence. Work Well-being in Action™ addresses these challenges by of both the individual and theManagers and staff training based on the ‘value’ business.

The Vi²dus model, designed to mirror best practice, recognises that effective management of stress needs to be integrated and preferably embedded with modern management practice such as induction and appraisal.

Mapped to the HSE 6 Management Standards the Vi²dus model provides simple yet robust interventions for any organisation addressing work related stress and management of absence.

The Vi²dus Work Well-being in Action™ portfolio offers an innovative range of interventions to improve performance, reduce costs and therefore develop your business, enterprise or organisation, enhancing the service you provide to your customers and improving the overall health of your organisation.

The Vi²dus Work Well-being in Action™ portfolio includes: