Older, coastal employees more likely to take leave: Report

If your business has been hit by employees extending their long weekend by taking another day off today, you are not alone. The Victorian and New South Wales Governments are both struggling to find ways to reduce sick leave, according to recent reports.

According to the Victorian Attorney-General’s new report into leave in the education sector, leave management is an “area of risk in all organisations.”

“It needs to be appropriately recognised and monitored,” the report says.

“Low staff productivity, poor occupational health and safety outcomes, and significant additional costs can result if leave is not managed effectively.”

The Victorian report showed the average sick leave per full-time employee in universities and TAFE was 4.8 days in 2010, up from the previous year.

It also found that the average sick leave days taken by both general and academic staff increased in the three years to December 31, 2010.

A report by the New South Wales auditor general into the state’s attempts to reduce public service sick leave found that older workers and workers living in coastal areas are more likely sick leave.

The sick leave audit, released at the end of 2010 by the state’s auditor-general, says staff engagement is a “key factor in reducing sick leave.”

“As well as implementing specific sick leave initiatives, agencies should examine what motivates people to go to work. Ultimately, happy healthy people take less sick leave,” it says.

The report, based on a review of statewide sick leave data and information from 12 public sector agencies, found agencies with a higher entitlement tended to have a higher sick leave rate.

It also found:

• Sick leave increases with age and length of service.
• The more employees get paid the less sick leave they take.
• Coastal employees take more sick leave than those in the country.
• There can be a spike in sick leave before or after weekends and public holidays.

Among its recommendations, the report says the Department of Premier and Cabinet should help public sector agencies manage sick leave by monitoring data with other human resource indicators, including staff engagement to find out what motivates staff to go to work.

“The results for 2009-10 show no improvement with average public sector sick leave remaining steady at 8.13 days per person per year,” the report says.

It adds that no initiative on its own will reduce sick leave.

“Agencies can adopt a range of strategies to suit their workplace to address both genuine illness and sick leave abuse by employees,” it says.

“To help prevent illness we found agencies had adopted healthy workforce initiatives to promote employee wellbeing. This included influenza vaccinations, gym memberships and employee counselling.”

The report adds that addressing inappropriate use of sick leave by staff requires a different approach.

“Supervisors within agencies must actively monitor and manage staff suspected of abusing sick leave and have clear rules for managing absences,” it says.

Some strategies adopted by agencies included:

• Interviewing staff returning from sick leave.
• Case managing people with psychological issues.
• Calling people on sick leave to check their welfare and return date.
• Penalising employees with excessive or unauthorised leave.