Absenteeism reduced to half in ISS Norway
ISS Norway has reduced sickness absenteeism from 17 to 7 percent. The total sickness absence in Norway has decreased by 11.2 percent since an agreement between the Norwegian government and employer/employee organizations came in 2001.
In 2011 sickness absence in ISS Norway ended at 7.3 percent, which is 50 percent down compared with the sickness absence prior to the signed agreement in 2001.
ISS Norway has about 14,000 employees working in cleaning, catering, property management, security, support services and other types of service work. These are professions that traditionally have had high absenteeism, but sick leave has also been reduced in many of these fields.
HR director at ISS Norway, Knut Olav Nyhus Olsen, said:
– Compared with 2006, sickness absence among those who work in cleaning decreased from 11.5 to 10.9 percent in catering and from 8.3 to 7.2 percent in facility management from 7.6 to 5.2 percent.
Most of the reduction has been in regards of long-term absence.
Knut Olav Nyhus Olsen adds:
– Many people think there is a high short-term absence in the industry. That is not true. It's the long-term absence which creates problems, and it is this type of absence, we have managed to decrease significantly.
Well-being at work
The effort to reduce sickness absence is an initiative started by the management of ISS Norway. It has been implemented on a wide range of procedures and systematic actions to follow up the sick.
Knut Olav Nyhus Olsen said:
– This shouldn’t be mistaken for bureaucracy or too much control. We work systematically to ensure that those who are ill should be regarded in a positive way. Every manager knows what to do when someone falls ill for a longer period.
Well-being at work has increased as absenteeism has reduced.
Knut Olav Nyhus Olsen said:
– The most recent employee satisfaction survey showed a score of 4.4 points out of five possible when it came to well-being at work. When we started conducting the surveys we got a score of 3.8.