People Inc. Features

Fit for Work Legislation and People Inc.

Are your employees Fit to Work?

The statistics for sickness absence across the UK are quite alarming. Around 140 million working days are lost to sickness each year, which generates an annual bill of £9 billion for employers, and £12 billion in benefits, plus a further £2 billion for healthcare and taxes.

Each year it is estimated that a million employees are absent for a continuous period of at least 4 weeks due to sickness.

In order to manage this more efficiently and help employees to get back to work, new legislation referred to as ‘Fit for Work’ will be introduced in May 2015. This will effectively replace the current Statutory Sick Pay Scheme.

Employers will also benefit from a tax exemption of up to £500 for each employee that is receiving payments for medical treatment through the ‘Fit for Work’ scheme.

Fit to Work?

So how will this new legislation work? There are 2 different stages; occupational health assessment after 4 weeks of continuous sick leave, and health & work advice for those that are returning to work.

Occupational Health Assessment

The employees GP can refer them for an occupational health assessment with a professional after 4 weeks of continuous sick leave. This will determine whether they can return to work fully or gradually, or not at all. If they cannot yet return to work then the employer should discuss employment options with the employee as the employer can decide to dismiss them.

The employer can also request a referral for an occupational health assessment on behalf of the employee.

Return to Work plan

Once an assessment is complete, a Return to Work plan will be put in place. This should include recommended steps the employee should take to recover such as medical care from their GP, reasonable adjustments made by their Employer, and any additional help & advice.

The employer should encourage employees to return to work by offering to change the working conditions e.g. fewer/flexible hours, working from home, adapting equipment, moving desk, audio-visual alarms for deafness, ramps for wheelchairs, moving floors, offering training, making recreation/refreshment facilities available.

Health & Work Advice

If the employee suffers from a disability or illness they will benefit greatly from additional health and work advice. This could include tips on how to manage symptoms while at work and how to make sure that other employees are aware, for example if you require audio-visual equipment for deafness others should be aware so that they do not tamper with the equipment or get frustrated if they or a customer is not being acknowledged.

How can People Inc. help?

People Inc. is a very flexible piece of software, which means that changes to legislation such as Fit to Work, can easily be incorporated into the system. Using the screen designer we can create a new screen to record the key information required in order to efficiently record and manage Fit to Work information to meet this latest legislation.

Fit to Work Screen

Once Fit to Work information is recorded in People Inc. you can then create reports and letters which include this information. For example, whilst a simple sickness report may include an overview of sickness within a year, it can be enhanced to include the Fit for Work information for employees using the built in Report writer tool.

To find out more about using People Inc. contact us on 01242 663974