Case study: Live data drives 45% reduction in absence

Vertas is the fastest growing multi-service facilities management company in UK’s eastern region. They have been using Honeydew’s system since November 2014. By tackling absence proactively, they achieved more than £217,000 quarterly savings.

SITUATION IN 2014

  • Absence levels in excess of 5.5% or 12.5 days per employee per year
    • Likely under-reporting due to manual processes
  • No management information to drive and guide management actions
  • Payroll system provided data 6 weeks in arrears
  • Unable to calculate true cost of absence

 

“We had no management information from our HR payroll system, so the managers were really working blind.”

 

 GOALS

  • Reducing absence below 3%
  • Empowering line managers with live absence data
  • Ensuring consistency in absence management
  • Ascertaining the cost of absence and achieving cost savings

 

“Implementation was as smooth as anything. We have experience of other systems, which were very cumbersome to roll out, but the implementation with Honeydew went very very smoothly”

 

ACTIONS 

  • Honeydew’s Day-1 absence reporting service was rolled out Nov 2014
  • Collecting full absence data consistently
  • Online access to up-to-date absence data for all stakeholders
  • Automated triggers and prompts for management tasks to help line managers
  • Centralised record keeping with full audit trails and management performance metrics
  • Triggers for early intervention via OH
  • Training on key absence management tasks like RTW interviews and review meetings
  • Regular review meetings with Day-1 absence reporting service provider to drive continuous improvements

 

“An absolute selling point of this system is its ease of use”

 

RESULTS

  • Direct cost of absence was calculated at £74.20 per day

  • Absence levels reduced from 5.5% to below 3% in 9 months: a saving of approximately £217,750 per quarter / £871,000 per year

  • Return on investment in Honeydew Health’s Day-1 absence management service:

    £19.1 per every £1 spent

  • 74% reduction in time lost to absences caused by back problems
  • 23% reduction in stress and mental health related absence
  • Return to work completion on day of return increased from 4% to 40% in 6 months
  • Managers more empowered and better skilled to tackle absence issues

List articles by category

About Engage

Absence management

Case studies

Holidays

Software as a Service

Tips

Shortlist articles by topic

attendance policy best practice CIPD cost of absence covid-19 early intervention employment law engage fit note flexible working happy workplaces health healthy attendance holiday management how to HR hr software improve productivity innovation Line managers long term absence mental health mythbusting new features news occupational health preventing absence productivity pulling sickies reducing absence return to work SaaS short term absence sick pay SMEs software solutions statistics surveys and research targets technology the Usual suspects triggers UK government wellbeing