Re-introducing Individuals Into the Workforce
Getting employees back to work after a long-term absence can be difficult. Recent evidence also suggests that there are various other influences which discourage employees from returning to work once they have left their job, particularly in the case of American men.
The percentage of Americans active within the US labour force has dropped by almost 4% since 2007. The influencing factors are ones which are potentially effecting the global workforce and not just Americans. For example, many would-be workers are seeking to gain new skills and gain fresh academic qualifications in order to make themselves more employable and less likely to end up with a poorly paying job. This, however, is not necessarily the case in the UK where higher education levels are down in 2012/2013 from previous years due to the hike in university fees. Since the recession there has also been a slight decrease in the number of Americans looking for work because of a combination of less attractive job prospects, workplace wage cuts and higher competition for jobs. Higher competition for jobs is highly evident amongst graduates in the UK. This is because there are usually 80 or so individuals applying for the same job which has encouraged some graduates to seek employment abroad and thereby leave the UK labour force.
Furthermore, long term absence also encourages some to leave the labour force. Evidence suggests that 1 in 5 workers will not return to work after just 4 weeks of absence. In fact, there are over 300,000 employees per year who fall out of work in the UK and take up health related welfare payments instead. It is highly difficult to get these ex-employees back into the labour force thereafter. It is essential, therefore, to intervene in such cases as early as possible. Not only are the chances of retaining staff much higher if employers intervene and provide the necessary health care as early as possible but early intervention in these cases can save companies a fortune too.
The best way to spot potential employees who may drop out of the workforce due to ill-health is to implement a robust tool for monitoring absence, like Engage. Not only will Engage help you identify these individuals and allow for early intervention but it can also help your company reduce its absence levels on the whole and save money as a result.