More than 250 of the UK’s largest employers have joined a new initiative aimed at reducing long-term sickness absence, with former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield arguing that keeping more people healthy and in work could unlock economic growth “hiding in plain sight”.
The employers, which include British Airways, Tesco, Royal Mail, Sainsbury’s, EDF Energy and Currys, have signed up to the government’s Keep Britain Working programme. Ten mayoral authorities and the devolved administrations are also taking part in the initiative, which focuses on preventing people leaving work because of ill health and helping those who are off sick return safely.
As part of the programme, participating organisations will measure sickness absence, return-to-work outcomes and disability participation through a new Workplace Health Intelligence Unit, which the government says will create a clearer picture of workplace health performance and help employers identify what works.
Sir Charlie, who led the government-commissioned Keep Britain Working review, said too many employees disappeared from the workplace after being signed off sick with little or no contact from their employer.
“I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who said: ‘I was signed off work for three months, or six months, and I never had any contact with my employer at all,'” he told the BBC.
“That’s not because the employer is a bad person. It’s because we’ve got a situation at the minute where people don’t talk to each other when they really need to.”
Earlier intervention
The programme is designed to move the focus from supporting people only after they leave work because of ill health towards earlier intervention that helps them remain in employment.
The government said 2.8 million people are currently out of work because of long-term sickness, while Sir Charlie’s review estimated that worklessness linked to ill health costs the UK economy around £212 billion each year.
The initiative will see employers develop more consistent stay-in-work and return-to-work plans, alongside better data on workforce health, allowing organisations to benchmark their performance and identify where additional support is needed.
Sir Charlie said improving communication between employers and employees was central to reducing avoidable job losses linked to illness.
Health as a growth strategy
Sir Charlie argued that helping more people remain in work would strengthen the economy without relying on higher immigration or waiting for more young people to enter the labour market.
“Fixing these problems at the fundamental level, could make a really big contribution to getting this economy working better — for employers, for employees, for the taxpayer, for all of us,” he said.
“This is not a zero-sum game. It’s not a question of employers win and employees lose and vice versa. Everybody can win.”
He added that getting more people back into employment represented “growth hiding in plain sight”.
“You wouldn’t have had to build a single house, open a new channel of immigration; you wouldn’t have to wait for a cohort of young people to join the workplace. This is basically growth hiding in plain sight.”
The government said the programme would also develop a national standard for workplace health provision and encourage employers to adopt more consistent approaches to supporting employees before health issues force them out of work. It said the long-term aim was to make prevention, early intervention and effective return-to-work support a routine part of workforce management.
William Furney is a Managing Editor at Black and White Trading Ltd based in Kingston upon Hull, UK. He is a prolific author and contributor at Workplace Wellbeing Professional, with over 127 published posts covering HR, employee engagement, and workplace wellbeing topics. His writing focuses on contemporary employment issues including pension schemes, employee health, financial struggles affecting workers, and broader workplace trends.
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
