Nurses Call Centre:  Reducing Sick Days In Other Call Centres
By Dj Varma

Does your organization have a problem with too many employees calling in sick too often?  Especially when cricket is on.  Perhaps, you need to try out the latest solution pioneered by Australian company Direct Health Solutions.  How does it work?  If an employee calls in sick, they do not phone their boss,   but ring medical nurses at Direct Health Solutions Call Centre.  The ‘sick’ employee may discuss their medical condition in confidence with the nurse at the call centre.  The nurse, in turn, can only offer medical advice and cannot make a judgement if it is a genuine sickness, or an excuse to stay home to watch a cricket match between India and Pakistan.  The nurse then tells the boss that the employee will not be coming to work that day.

One of Australia’s local government organization found that such a methodology reduced ‘sick’ leave taken by its employees by 10 percent.  As you can imagine, employers are overjoyed at anything that reduces fake ‘sick’ leave, and improves productivity and consequently the profit margins.  The program has its share of critics who claim this ‘Big Brother’ approach violated the age-old practice of dealing with medical issues in private, rather than with nurses hired by the employer. 

Techgoss put the following questions to Direct Health Solutions Chief Executive Officer, Paul Dundon.

Q.   How did you think about this idea to reduce absenteeism at the work place?
A. (Paul Dundon) We identified a gap in the market- what employers were doing to reduce absenteeism was not effective. We knew an fresh approach was required to not only deter non-genuine absence but also to provide the right level of support to employees when they are sick. Approximately 75% of all absenteeism is health related. Therefore, it makes sense to provide employees with confidential health advice at the time of calling in sick to help get them back to health and back to work as soon as possible.

Q.   How much money can call centres save by using your service?  How much using of ‘sick’ leave is reduced with your service?
A.  Call centres can save millions. The average absentee rate in Call Centres in Australia is 8% (according to CallCentres.net). That is, on any given day, 80 out of 1,000 staff do not turn up for work. Our estimates indicate we can reduce sick leave levels to no greater than 2.5%, or an increased on-site headcount of 56 per 1,000. An FTE in the industry costs about 65K. It's about $3.6 million in direct cost savings, not to mention the reduction in overtime, improved revenue and customer service levels.

Q. How many organizations are using your service?
A. We will have organisations employing over 200,000 people using our service by February 2007.