BETTER communication between managers and staff has been suggested as one way to reduce the rising cost of staff sickness at Dorset County Council.

The Echo revealed earlier this week how staff sickness is costing the county council almost £3m a year in lost productivity, with the council failing to keep track of those off ill.

Members of the county council staffing committee met yesterday to discuss a report looking at the management of attendance.

Alison Crockett, HR shared services manager at the county council, authored the report. She said: “The concern there, particularly with some of those longer absences, is that people are not maintaining contact with people when they are off.

“It’s established fact that maintaining contact with people when they are off long term helps to improve the chances of an effective return to the workplace.”

Ms Crockett said this needed to be addressed early on, particularly when absence is related to diagnoses of stress, anxiety or depression.

She said: “If we are going to make changes in these areas, managers at every level need to actively manage attendance.

“Our corporate leadership team are committed to driving the effective management attendance.”

Responding to the report, Cllr Paul Kimber said: “We are not alone in this. I was listening to the NHS this morning and they have got similar problems if not worse.”

Cllr Kimber asked whether managers were adequately trained in contacting sick personnel.

He said: “It could be deemed that you are trying to drive someone back to work.”

Ms Crockett said: “We have had discussions. One of the anxieties that some managers have is that feel if somebody is genuinely unwell they should be left to get better in their own sweet time.”

Members of the committee agreed to note planned action and further proposals designed to reduce sickness absence.

They also agreed to a proposed list of sickness absence targets for 2015/2016.

The proposed whole authority target excluding schools, Public Health and the Dorset Waste Partnership has reduced from 7.5 working days per full time employee for 2014/15 to 7.45 working days for 2015/16.