Stress the biggest cause of civil service work absence
MORE than £10m. worth of work hours have been lost due to sickness in the public sector since May 2016, an Access to Public Information request has revealed.
The States has published the amount of sickness absence experienced by every committee, the reasons for this absence and the equivalent cost in work time since the new structure was implemented.
The biggest single cause has been stress, either work or non-work related, which accounted for 19,505 of the 84,315 days of sickness between May 2016 and February 2018.
Around 60% of stress-related absence is attributable to Health & Social Care staff, with recruitment and retention difficulties experienced both locally and nationally.
In January this year HSC confirmed it was short of 125 registered nurses, a vacancy rate of almost 20%.
Follow-up questions about this and other subjects have been put to the States.
In his annual report for 2017, States of Guernsey chief executive Paul Whitfield said steps were being taken to improve the wellbeing of its 5,300 plus workforce.
‘With a workforce as large and diverse as the States of Guernsey, it is important that the organisation continues to examine ways to minimise sickness absence wherever possible,’ he said.
‘This remains a priority area for the senior leadership team, with the focus being on the proactive management of sickness absenteeism.
‘During the last year the HR team has focused its attention on areas of high sickness, such as public service employees, teachers and nurses.
‘The team has also done a lot of work on better understanding reasons for absence. This found that non-work related stress, muscular-skeletal issues and flu/cough/cold are the top three. In response, the States of Guernsey has introduced a number of initiatives aimed at reducing sickness absenteeism.
‘This includes the ‘’Be a Well Being’’ campaign launched by the Chief Executive at the Service Guernsey staff event,’ said Mr Whitfield.
‘We have also supported Public Health initiatives, such as working towards all government buildings being smoke free.
‘During the next 12 months we will continue focusing on key areas of staff sickness, and monitor if measures put in place during the last year have had an impact.
‘Additionally, we have changed our internal process around the administration of staff sickness benefit cheques. This reduced administration has resulted in cost reductions.’
