What Happened?
Helsinki, Finland, recently adopted a flexible personnel management program that nurtures employee development over the course of a career while reducing costly absenteeism. The benefits of lower turnover and increased employee engagement are shared by both public agencies and local residents.
The Goal
Helsinki’s new personnel policies focused on reducing the number of sick days taken by employees, as well as extending the length of their careers so workers are better at their jobs for a long period of time. The changes to employee rules and talent development programs have extended the average retirement age by two years since 2008 to 64.4 years. Less employees are retiring from their positions due to disability reasons as well.
In terms of reduced sick days, Helsinki reported the lowest number of absences in 2012 in the 10 years prior with a 4.7 percent drop. The city was able to gain back 30,000 workdays to save an estimated €4 million.
How It Happened
Helsinki officials researched the major causes and risks associated with employee absences and took steps to eliminate these sources through reformed occupational health services. The city screens its workforce regularly to determine individual needs and ensure assistance is provided to support a healthy, consistent work environment. The new system (bone up on your Finnish language to read the PDF) includes mixing different age groups in a way that optimize each worker’s strengths in a team-oriented environment. A key element also took into account each individual’s health and work needs by finding solutions to a work/life balance.
Looking At Stats
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported employee absenteeism due to sickness or injury reached the highest number in January 2013 since February 2008. Personal illness, injury or medical appointments caused 2.9 million full time workers to report part time hours in January 2013, while 1.2 million employees missed an entire week of work for the same reasons. Many employee absences are also due to other family or personal obligations, as well as adverse weather conditions making traveling difficult.
Preventive Measures
The U.S. Small Business Administration explains high absentee rates can be an indication of low employee morale or high stress, and often results in increasing the workload of other workers, drop in productivity and loss of revenue. The SBA outlined a few steps public agencies and municipalities can take to reduce employee absenteeism and increase worker engagement:
- Determine the reason for one or several absences. A sick employee must get better, but a burnt out worker can have a negative impact on the rest of the workplace. Discuss with the worker how their situation could be improved to reduce stress and boost morale.
- Create a performance improvement plan to review worker output and compare rises and drops in productivity to absences. Identifying patterns in attendance and performance will help managers establish a plan to track work and distribute consequences for subpar output.
- Experiment with incentive plans that reward employees for low absentee rates, if negative consequences do not generate results. Reassess the management style of the office to determine if workers respond better to positive or critical feedback better when lowering absences.
Best Practices
Gov1 has monitored other public employer strategies including hiring programs and new operational models.