Absence management cuts premiums for Avaya UK

Avaya UK, the communication systems company, has secured a £31,000 reduction on its annual income protection premium by implementing an absence management system across the business. It was offered the discount, which reduced its premium from £292,000 to £261,000 a year, by provider Friends Provident in return for putting an absence management system in place.

Carol Baylis, EMEA compensation and benefits manager, said: "[Income protection] comes into place when someone has been absent for more than 26 weeks. Having a good absence management system in place means we can identify early on where we have got somebody who may go to the 26 weeks. It is a cost saving for the company because [with the right management we could] get somebody back to work quicker."

She added that the saving the company has made would have covered the cost of implementing the absence management system twice over. "It is a win-win situation. We get the control and visibility we need and we made a saving on what is a substantial cost to the business."

The system, which is due to go live on 1 July for Avaya’s 650 UK employees, records and logs calls from staff who phone in sick and then sends an email or text message to the employee’s line manager. The software, provided by PMI Health Group, also generates reports to help companies keep track of absenteeism. The same system may later be rolled out to cover staff based in Ireland.