Issue - meetings

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development submitted a report on the short and long term sickness absence for 2016/17 and outlined initiatives to reduce absence.  The HR Officer provided a summary of the explanations for sickness and benchmarking which had been carried out to help evaluate the targets proposed. 

Councillor P Ruffles expressed concern about the rise in mental health statistics and queried whether this was because more people were comfortable discussing their illnesses.  He urged HR to keep this under review.  The Head explained that this issue was no longer a “taboo” subject to discuss.  She added that the statistics reflected the amount of change within the Council in terms of restructures and how people had reacted to this and that long term sickness was not just about work, but a combination of other factors too.

Councillor M Stevenson sought and was provided with assurances regarding the Council’s referral system to Occupational Health.  The Committee Chairman queried whether Members would like to have a presentation on Occupational Health at some future date.  This was supported.

In response to a query from Councillor P Boylan regarding national sickness averages against those of East Herts, the HR Officer explained that she would review the report to establish more information.  The Head of HR and Organisational Development explained that the Council did not have high levels of sickness and that last year, the Council had its lowest sickness levels in the last five years. 

The Head of HR and Organisational Development explained how the new payroll system “MyView” allowed employees to add personal details.

The Committee noted the changes to the Sickness Absence Policy and agreed that the targets as detailed, be retained.

RESOLVED – that (A) the report be noted;

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

(C)   a presentation be provided to Members by the Occupational Health team on mental health within the Council, including a review on the use of the new payroll system “MyView”.