Toshiba’s proactive approach to employee well‐being
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Pages | 10-11 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000601 |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Author | Susan Stevens |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Key absence issues
The average days lost for sickness per
employee per year compared favorably
to the national average, suggesting
that TIU staff were generally healthy,
happy and motivated. However, further
analysis, taking into account indirect
costs such as temporary staff, additional
overtime, lost service and production
time, revealed that the cost of absence
was relatively high given the low
absence rate.
The average period of sickness leave
was 3.3 days (compared to the national
average of 3.5 days). However, nearly
90 percent of absences were accounted
for by spells of fewer than five days.
This suggested that the frequency of
absences was a major factor in business
disruption and associated costs.
As a result, a key recommendation
from the review was to implement an
absence
management policy
to assess and
measure the
irregularity of
attendance.
The Bradford Factor
Like most companies,
TIU staff are
expected to contact
their manager to let
him or her know
they won’t be
10 Volume 4 Issue 3 March/April 2005
HR at WORK
,
Short case studies that demonstrate best practice in HR
Toshiba’s proactive approach
to employee well-being
T
oshiba Information Systems UK
(TIU) is the UK arm of Toshiba
Corporation. It has revenues in
excess of UK£600 million a year and
employs over 800 people. They’re a
healthy group. TIU staff average only 3.5
days’ absence per year – less than half
the average for the UK services sector.
However, although TIU enjoyed low
absence rates, the HR team wanted to
gain a better understanding of the
nature of absences and the underlying
causes. Its objective was to devise and
implement an absence management
strategy to enhance internal processes
and enable a more proactive approach
to managing employees with health
and attendance problems.
Building an absence strategy
The starting point was an in-depth review
of sickness absence across the company.
The aims of the review were to:
•Identify the proportion and nature of
sickness absences.
•Compare TIU’s sickness absence level
to national averages.
•Assess the cost of sickness absences.
•Identify any company-specific issues
relating to absence.
•Propose recommendations and
actions.
The first stage of the review,
undertaken during June 2004, involved
gathering absence information from
each of the different business units
within TIU. The data was compiled and
analyzed by the HR team and external
consultants were brought in to provide
an objective outside assessment. The
results of the analysis were compared
against benchmark figures from DLA’s
HR Performance Indicators report1,
helping to identify a number of key
issues (see Figure 1, below).
Toshiba Corporation is the world’s 9th
largest electronics group. It has over
166,000 employees across 100 countries
and annual revenues of UK£30 billion. Its
products include laptop computers and
telecoms systems, home electronics and
industrial and medical equipment.
TOSHIBA
Susan Stevens, head of HR at Toshiba Information Systems UK, describes how the company developed a
strategy to measure and improve absence rates and overall employee well-being.
Days lost per employee
Days lost by employee
category
Average length of absence
period
Absences accounted for by
spells of fewer than 5 days
Most commonly perceived
reasons for all sickness absence
Benchmark TIU
6.3 3.51
50% higher for operational/
support staff than for managerial/
professionals
10% higher for warehouse
than for office
3.5 days 3.3 days
60% 90%
• Cold/flu
• Stomach
• Stress/anxiety
• Viral
• Abdominal/digestive
• Ear/nose/throat
Figure 1. Benchmarking absence data at TIU
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2005. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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