THE GRIMSBY Institute of Further and Higher Education is researching how health and wellbeing initiatives can impact on sickness absence rates among its own staff.
A group of 16 employees in the organisation’s health and social care sector are being monitored for 12 months after being given a “health MOT” when the trial started in October last year.
During the year, the group will be given advice on posture, healthy lifestyle, nutrition and exercise, and have been issued with Fitbug interactive pedometers to record their activity levels.
Researchers will compare data from before and during the study to see how the personal support and focus on health and wellbeing have affected absence rates.
The college already has extensive absence monitoring in place to identify hotspots and works with managers to reduce absence levels among its 1,400 staff.
Peter Barnard, registrar, said: “We have noticed hotspot areas where teams have a higher-thanexpected
absence rate.
“We work with managers to improve this, but we wanted to improve our understanding of people’s jobs.”
Katrina McKeever