Benefits

Effective absence management enables a business to intervene at the earliest opportunity, thus minimising the risk of an employee being absent from work for a sustained period and reducing the cost of absence to your business.

Shorter periods of absence will limit the impact on other employees, who will have to cover the absence, pick up extra work and work longer hours for a protracted period. The impact on other employees' health and potential further cost to your business is therefore minimised. In many cases, an employee is not absent but their performance is impacted and therefore their productivity.

With effective absence management processes in place, an employer can be reassured that their managers and HR are supported to deal with absence management.

How can effective absence management help your business and keep the cost of absence down? By collaboration with OH to set up an effective management tool, to enable managers and HR to refer an employee to OH at the earliest opportunity. Optima bespoke has designed a user-friendly management referral form, which the manager or HR simply completes. OH will then contact the employee to arrange an assessment. For convenience, this is typically carried out over the phone, which is often more agreeable to the employee and is most often the quickest method.

OH Advisers and OH Physicians are either qualified nurses or doctors who have undertaken specialist OH training. Both employer and employee will receive the very highest level of expert advice and support, specifically focussed on the impact of health on work and of work on health.

The detailed OH report will provide you with advice on the following:

Is the employee fit for work?

If yes, what reasonable adjustments are recommended to facilitate this return to work?

If no, when is the employee likely to return to work?

Is appropriate care, treatment and support in place?

Is the employee's health likely to be impacted again / likely to require further absence in the future?

OH will recommend any appropriate medical intervention such as specialist referral, or a GP appointment and can arrange referral on if agreed by the employer.

This may be all you need at this stage to effectively manage the case and move forward.

If required OH can continue to monitor the employee's progress and send management / HR an update report, keeping the business fully appraised of progress.

The employee is supported and advised throughout this process, which enables the employee to take ownership of their health needs. The employee is advised medically, in particular; what care or treatment they should be accessing, when they are clinically fit to return to work, what actions they can take appropriately to resolve their health issue and return to work at the earliest appropriate opportunity