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Positive action by businesses to improve their sickness absence management will lead to productivity improvements, the Health and Safety Executive said today. Speaking at a seminar on absence management being held in Edinburgh, HSE's Director for Scotland Stewart Campbell said the loss of productivity when staff were off sick was relatively greater for small firms and could have an impact on their business success or even survival. Mr Campbell was introducing today's Seminar on Absence Management for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises, organised by The University of Glasgow's SAM project. Among the speakers are representatives from the University of Glasgow, STUC, Scottish Engineering and the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. The seminar aims to provide participants with a greater insight into how they manage, and subsequently reduce, sickness absence rates within their organization. Participants will also be offered the opportunity to test a free absence management-recording tool (SART)in their companies. Stewart Campbell said: "A current campaign being run by HSE, Better Business, argues that good health and safety management results in business benefits. I believe that companies who take active steps to reduce accidents, improve health and safety will see benefits in terms of reduced accidents and improved productivity. "Today's seminar aims to help firms to improve their absence management recording. The more firms can do to monitor and manage sickness absence proactively, the more likely they will be able to prevent it turning into prolonged time off work, or even job loss. "For small firms the risk of losing productivity when key staff are off sick is relatively greater, and can have a major impact on business success or even survival. "The Health and Safety Executive commissioned the Institute of Occupational Medicine to develop SART, and the project is being evaluated by Glasgow University's Healthy Working Lives Research Group."
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