Stress-related absence is on the rise in nearly two-fifths of the UK's workplaces, and less than half of people professionals say their efforts to tackle stress in their organisation are effective, a recent research report published by the CIPD has been able to suggest.
The survey reveals that organisations are much more effective in tackling stress when they have a standalone well-being strategy in support of their wider corporate strategy and when line managers have bought in to the importance of well-being.
But the research shows that many employers' efforts are falling short of what's needed: just two fifths have a formal well-being strategy in place, and the majority are relying on line managers to look after the well-being of the workforce, without giving them adequate support to do so.
The two top causes of stress at work are unmanageable workloads (say 62% of HR professionals) and management style (43%) — two factors that put line managers squarely in the frame for people's mental well-being. Furthermore, the report also found that in nearly two-thirds of organisations, line managers are expected to take prime responsibility for managing short-term absence (extending to long-term absence in two-fifths of organisations.
Plus, among the minority of organisations that tackle presenteeism (working when unwell), the overwhelming majority, (79%) rely on managers sending people home when they're unwell.
Rachel Suff, senior policy adviser at the CIPD who led on the research, says: 'Not only are most managers ill equipped to support their teams through times of stress, but if they don't go about their role in the right way, the impact on people's well-being can be harmful.
Time & Attendance UK supplies an extensive range of solutions designed specifically to help employers thoroughly monitor and manage absence, with our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporating a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.
Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records.
Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.
WinTA.NET provides the relevant managers the required information on employee's absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.
If you'd like to find out more about the Time & Attendance UK workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.