Absence Management

A b sence m an agem e nt an d t h e issu es o f jo b r e t ent io n a n d r et u r n t o w ork

Strategies aimed at facilitating the job retention and return to work of sick and injured workers are currently the subject of growing attention. In this article the authors examine the nature and potential signi® cance of such strategies to absence management and utilise interview ® ndings to shed light on current employer policies and practices relating to the management of long-term absences. They conclude that at the national level a large proportion of working days lost through sickness absence stem from relatively long spells of absence and that the adoption of a proactive approach to supporting the return to work of ill and injured workers can have beneficial consequences. However, they further conclude that few organisations appear to have comprehensive arrangements in place to ha ndle cases of l o ng-term a bsence. A number o f a reas where p res ent e mployer arrangements could usefully be reviewed are therefore identi® ed.
Contact: Philip James, Middlesex University Business School, The Burroughs,
Hendon, London NW4 4BT. Email: [e-mail]

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ach year many thousands of w orkers leave their employment as a result of illness and injury. Yet little attention has been paid within the HRM literature to the policies and strategies that organisations can utilise to minimise the scale of such job loss. This is despite the fact t hat there is some evidence to suggest that employers can put in place arrangements that will serve to enhance the return to work and continued employm ent of workers suffering f rom potentially job-thre aten i n g medical conditions.
F u r t h e r m o re, t his l a ck o f at tentio n e xists a ga inst the b a ckgro u nd o f po licy developments and debates aimed at facilitating the job retention and return to work of sick and injured workers. At the level of the European Union, for example, the issue
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