Our Occupational Health module helps employers reduce the cost of absence due to ill health, stress, mental health problems and workplace injuries.
Occupational Health is made up of three core benefits:
Employers can identify and manage occupational health risks and issues affecting employees, ensuring minimum disturbance to business. It's a very cost effective option - giving employers access to the kind of expert advice they wouldn't normally be able to tap into.
It also helps managers, particularly when it comes to handling employee sickness issues they might not be comfortable with. Just as importantly, it can also help employers comply with health and safety legislation and the Disability Discrimination Act.
Absence referrals offer employers a way of reviewing and managing cases of absence while allowing them to continue focusing on their business.
An absence referral might be triggered by:
Employers can also refer employees who have told them that they are concerned about their own ill health.
On receipt of an absence referral form, a consultant occupational health physician will review the case. Typically, they will arrange for an independent medical assessment close to where the employee lives or works.
The examining physician will provide a medical report to one of our consultant occupational health physicians who will write to the employer. The report will talk about the employee's fitness to work and their prognosis on returning to work. If relevant, it will highlight any issues in terms of the employers' compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act.
It will:
Every new employee you plan to take on is given a pre-employment questionnaire to complete.
This means that you can make job offers subject to references and a satisfactory health questionnaire before an employee joins the company. The candidate sends the completed form to us and we reply to you with a medical clearance certificate and, if necessary, obtain a separate medical report and/or an independent medical assessment. A pre-employment health questionnaire is probably the most cost efficient way of meeting your obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act.
Whatever the outcome, you're already managing your risks effectively - either by knowing the fitness for work of an employee you do take on, or turning down an employee who would be unsuitable for the job. We will also help identify employees with specific needs and, with current legislation in mind, this may require some changes to the working environment.
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This module also gives you access to a consultant occupational health physician who's completely focused on the needs of your company. This can include advice on appropriate policies for attendance management, substance misuse and stress.
Managers will receive additional support in the form of information on general health issues in the business, specific employee health concerns, medical aspects of industrial tribunals and general health and safety issues relating to the health of employees.
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There are two levels of Occupational Health cover available, depending on whether you want the cost to include or exclude expenses related to any further medical evidence that may be needed for absence referrals.
