Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 21^st November, 2017 be received and approved as a correct record.

The Chairman introduced the item and explained that the topic had been placed on the Scrutiny Workplan to enable the Panel to consider how the Attendance Management Policy was supporting employees and helping to manage sickness absence in a constructive manner following its introduction in 2015.

He informed the Panel that this topic was last considered via the Scrutiny process in 2015 when the Attendance Management Policy was first introduced.  At that time Members were supportive of the new approach following concerns about the Bradford Factor (the previous method and formula used to manage attendance) and were keen to ensure that the Policy was effective in supporting employees and managing attendance in a constructive way.

The scoping report presented to the Panel provides an overview of the current Attendance Management Policy for Members to consider and review any areas of concern or progress.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Kate Hill, Senior HR Adviser for the Ashfield and Mansfield HR Shared Service who was in attendance to assist Members in their consideration of this topic.

The Senior HR Advisor proceeded to give an overview of the impact of the Attendance Management Policy and summarise the various initiatives implemented over the last 2 years to improve employee attendance:-

The main points considered were as follows:-

Stress Action Plans

Stress Action Plans were introduced to help identify and address the reasons why employees were absent with stress.

Ashfield General Practitioners

Letters were sent to all Ashfield GP’s explaining what support the Council could offer to help employees return to work.

The Senior HR Adviser reported that unfortunately there had been very little feedback from this exercise.

Employee Assistance Programme

The introduction of a new ‘Employee Assistance Programme’ to provide counselling, online information and signposting to support.

Quarterly Meetings

Quarterly meetings between Human Resources and Directors are scheduled to discuss and review sickness absences and progress against the targets.

Promoting Health Lifestyles

Promotion of healthy lifestyles including the introduction of workplace health schemes, exercise referral schemes, stop smoking and weight management services.

Physiotherapy Service

Greater use of the physiotherapy service to assist employees with muscular/skeletal problems.

The Senior HR Advisor reported that the main objective of the Policy was to provide a framework for supporting employees to maintain expected levels of attendance.  In addition to this the Human Resources Team provide a wealth of support and advice to ensure that attendance management was effectively monitored and administrated.

The Senior HR Adviser briefly outlined a number of other procedures that are in place to enable the Human Resources Team to observe the Attendance Management Policy and support employees including:-

·         Monthly reports highlighting target/sickness.

·         Monthly absence trigger reports for both short term and long term absence.

·         Attendance at CLT to provide regular updates an attendance/sickness levels.

·         Referrals to occupational health and/or support providers.

·         Promotion of workplace health activities (holistic therapies, walking/fitness groups, yoga etc.).

·         Development of workplace Health Champions.

·         Identifying mental health problems in employees and rolling out mental health training.

The Senior HR Adviser  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.