Britvic’s new approach slashes staff sickness

Britvic Soft Drinks has cut sickness absences among its workforce in a joint project with consultancy Healthcare RM.

In general, the initiative has worked by increasing early return to work rates and sensitive case-management of long-term absentees.

Britvic focused on dealing with musculoskeletal and mental health complaints, which it found were the two commonest causes of ill-health and injury.

Across two production sites, Britvic reduced average sickness absences per employee per year from 11 days in 2006-2007 to 5.6 days from 2008-2009.

Musculoskeletal disorder cases were reduced from an average of 130 days per case to 69 days per case, with 95.5% returning to work within 180 days. The remaining 4.5% returned to work or left the business within 209 days.

Mental health cases were cut from a similar average to musculoskeletal complaints to 68 days per case over the same timescale. A total of 96.5% of mental health cases returned to work within 180 days, with the remaining 3.5% returning to work or leaving the business within 270 days.

Healthcare RM provided a centralised and integrated healthcare service team, which “offers consistency of service to employees and employer”, according to Britvic production manager Michael Clifford. “Line managers and employees have a structured approach to communications with the team, ensuring that both parties are given the best possible service to manage health effectively,” he said.

The consultancy introduced specialised management of musculoskeletal disorders using what it calls a ‘biopsychosocial’ approach.

This approach aims, where possible, to address healthcare issues before they arise by providing employees with help and advice. It considers underlying fitness levels, fitness for purpose, ergonomic assessments and the management of attitudes and beliefs to pain and exercise. It also tackles obstacles to recovery such as financial rewards including sick pay, incapacity benefits and employer’s liability claims.