The aim of all work with health, safety and environmental matters is to prevent employees from taking ill or being injured as a result of their work. Employees whose working environment is good, both technically and organisationally, who are happy at work and know that they will be taken care of in case of illness or injury, are more likely to perform efficient and high-quality work than others.
The level of sickness absence in a department or unit can give an indication of the state of the working environment. Telenor wishes to prevent illness and injuries, but it is difficult to eliminate occurrences entirely. Sick or injured personnel must be made aware that attempts will be made to enable them to return to work, even though they may not be able to perform exactly the same duties as they did before the injury took place. This is known as rehabilitation in the workplace. Common guidelines for rehabilitation in the workplace have been prepared for Telenor's companies.
In 2000, sickness absence in Telenor amounted to 205 936 working days – representing a cost of approximately NOK 515 million. The costs are covered partly by the employer and partly by the national insurance system. Reduced quality and productivity, overtime working and hiring and training of temporary replacements lead to hidden costs. A reduction in sickness absence will therefore represent considerable savings.
The following graph presents a summary of sickness absence in Telenor in the period 1994 to 2000, expressed as a percentage of the total number of man-days possible:
Telenor's aim is to achieve sickness absence figures of 4% or less. By focusing on preventive and follow-up work connected with sickness absence in the departments, combined with rehabilitation initiatives for injured and sick personnel, Telenor has achieved a stabilisation of the total sickness absence from 1994 to 2000. Sickness absence in 2000 amounted to 5.0%, compared with 5.1% in 1999. In the same period the sickness absence figures in general in Norway increased significantly.
The internal HSE-reports[!] show that 149 serious rehabilitation cases were handled in 2000. The public benefit system, in the form of the national insurance system and the employment exchange, was involved in individual cases as required.
A comparison between sickness absence figures in Telenor and the national trend can be found in the chapter on Examples in the environmental report. Here you will also find an article on the successful efforts to reduce sickness absence in Telenor's Customer Services department.
