Issue - meetings

The Head of Human Resources (HR) and Organisational Development submitted a report on sickness absence levels, which reviewed short and long term sickness for 2014/15 and proposed initiatives to reduce absence.

The Head of HR and Organisational Development drew Members’ attention to benchmarking averages, adding that the Council had the lowest sickness absence statistics for 2014/15; the average figure for local government was 8.2 days with East Herts recording 4.52 days.  The Chairman asked that the benchmarking information be circulated to Members of HR Committee.

The Head of HR and Organisational Development explained that the total short term and long term sickness was its lowest since 2010 which was a result of changes in policy and return to work interviews.  The Head of HR and Organisational Development provided a summary of staff sickness reasons.

In response to a query from the Chairman regarding a report on Health and Safety issues and injuries, the Head of HR and Organisational Development explained that there was a Health and Safety Committee and would speak to the Health and Safety Officer about reporting matters to Human Resources Committee.

The Chairman referred to the Absence Management Policy and the phrasing around verbal warnings and asked Officer to review this.  This was supported.

The Chairman referred to the high short-term sickness levels in Economic Development in 2013/14 and explained that as this Team was very small this had been reflected in a very high spike.  The Head of HR and Organisational Development explained that the graph showed comparative full time equivalents (FTEs), rather than numbers of staff.

The Committee approved the report.

RESOLVED – that (A) the sickness absence levels be noted;

(B)       the Council’s sickness absence categories be amended to reflect those shown in the CIPD’s Annual Absence Management Survey to facilitate detailed benchmarking when the new HR and Payroll system is introduced;

(C)       the current sickness absence management targets for short term absence (4.5 FTE days) and for long term absence (2 days FTE) and total absence of (6.5 days FTE) be retained; and

(D)       the wording in Absence Management Policy about verbal warnings be reviewed.