Short-term sickness absence is a costly factor most managers struggle with. Everyone wants to do something to improve workplace statistics, but the tools are few and often ineffective. Your company, and you as a CEO, HR Director, Manager, or board member, probably have as part of your goals to reduce short- and long-term absence. AtlasPROfilax®, and our therapists in 41 countries, want to help you achieve that.

• Reduce short-term absences due to headaches and migraines.
• Reduce short-term absences due to neck and back pain.
• Reduce long-term absence due to lower short-term sickness absence.

AtlasPROfilax® is a scientifically proven method to reduce pain and discomfort on three levels; mechanical, neurological, and vascular⁵.

Absence due to illness in any organization always leads to increased direct and indirect costs. If these costs become high, major problems for the organization can arise, as the staff is an organization's most important asset and many times the largest cost item. The cost of short-term sickness absence is not normally recognized in the accounts, but various studies show that it easily amounts to over €40-50/hour/person^1,4, not taking any possible production- or efficiency losses into account. The reason for not reporting these costs may be that they are seen as "invisible money", or can be included in many different accounts.

A company with only a 1% continuous sickness absence, due to short-term health problems, and personnel of 200 people will have 2 persons absent every day. Not many CEOs want “extra people” on board. What if you could easily reduce that number?

What to do?

To start with; develop an attendance policy. The company should have an attendance as well as the normal sickness absence policy, i.e. a target agreed by the workplace partners. The policy sets out, among other things, expected attendance and how this is to be achieved. Set clear targets. Set concrete targets for attendance and absence at the workplace, rather than generalized statements of goodwill. There will always be absences of various kinds and therefore targets should be reasonable and achievable. Initiating and starting this work is part of the strategic work of management. Efforts to increase attendance rarely succeed without a clear expression of management's will.¹ What does the leader want to lead - a healthy or a sick company?

Concrete measures to reduce short-term sickness absence may also include rehabilitation, redeployment, and various treatments.² Studies have shown that an atlasprofilax treatment effectively reduces short-term sickness absence. Causes such as migraines and headaches, neck and back pain are significantly reduced, thereby increasing workplace attendance. As a comparison, one study shows an overall pain index before treatment of 6.9 and one month after treatment of 3.7.

The cost of an employee's treatment amounts to less than one day's sick leave. The investment in staff, therefore, pays for itself very quickly. Furthermore, this calculation does not take into account the long-term impact of the reduction in short-term sickness absence, but it is likely to reduce long-term sickness absence as the employee gets older.³

Contact us here on LinkedIn, or search for a specialist on our Directory page https://www.atlasprofilax.ch/en/directory to start a discussion on how we can help your company have a better workplace attendance rate.

Sources:

1. 1. Vad kostar sjukfrånvaron (What is the cost of sickness absence). Linnaeus University, Jessika Brinker & Carolina Eriksson
   2. Prevention of sickness absence through early identification and rehabilitation of at-risk patients with musculoskeletal pain (PREVSAM): a randomized controlled trial protocol, Larsson et al. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (2020) 21:790 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-020-03790-5
   3. Short-term sick leave and future risk of sickness absence and unemployment - the impact of health status, Hultin et al. BMC Public Health 2012, 12:861 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/861
   4. Frånvaro från arbetet - att mäta, redovisa och åtgärda (Absence from work - measuring, reporting, and addressing), Liukkonen, Paula, - ISBN 9197501204
   5. AtlasPROfilax own studies https://www.atlasprofilax.ch/en/information/studies