Lambert Smith Hampton: Increasing occupational health referrals with absence intelligence

Lambert Smith Hampton has a network of offices across the UK and Ireland offering the full remit of commercial property consultancy services. However, the scope of their operations meant that was significant demand on their HR team.

Prior to 2015, there was no recognized HR system within the company, with paper-based processes being predominately used to track leave. This left Lambert Smith Hampton open to issues such as staff shortages, over or underpayments, and new joiners or recent leavers being allocated the incorrect amount of leave. Due to this, Lambert Smith Hampton’s management team was unable to properly understand absence trends that would have been generated by tracked data – consequently, they felt that they were potentially missing behaviours that would have allowed the HR team to refer colleagues to occupational health.

To tackle these challenges, Lambert Smith Hampton decided to work with edays on the project to transform their absence processes and the way they approach wellbeing. Three main project drivers were identified.

The first driver was to implement a self-service absence platform for their work which would help their HR team identify staff shortages and over or underpayments, whilst empowering employees to take ownership for their absence records.

The second was to ensure all unwell workers were being paid fairly by reporting on sick days/pay correctly, this would also ensure that Lambert Smith Hampton have an accurate picture of their financial commitments.

The third driver was to implement a platform that would provide them with the absence intelligence and data they needed to identify trends and patterns. Allowing them to refer more colleagues to occupational health and improve employee wellbeing.

edays absence intelligence platform replaced the legacy HR processes that Lambert Smith Hampton had in place across their business, with immediate impact. Whereas previously they had used paper forms for colleagues to request holidays or other leave, edays system meant that colleagues could make their requests quickly and efficiently, with prompt responses from line managers – no forms getting lost! edays also gives relevant people in the business oversight of who is going to be off and when, meaning, they are now able to make much smarter resourcing decisions.

edays has also helped Lambert Smith Hampton increase unpaid leave deductions by 164% – this has equated to significant payroll savings as they are now reporting on sick pay correctly. In the same time frame, LSH’s Company Sick Pay (Contractual) has reduced by 36% – they have seen an increase of SSP payments by 15% but this has resulted in overall savings as they are now effectively reporting on the correct Sickness Rules. edays has helped Lambert Smith Hampton make sure people get their statutory sick pay entitlement, while at the same time ensuring they have an accurate picture of their financial commitments.

edays has provided LSH with an easily accessible and readable source of information to give them insight into what affects departments’ performance and broader forecasting of wellness trends.

Since 2018 they have seen a 20% increase in referrals to their Occupational Health Provider and a 10% increase in flexible working arrangements which have helped support individuals get the right work and life balance. edays data is available for every colleague and helps LSH identify trigger behaviours quicker and with confidence. Before LSH adopted the edays system, different teams had different rules for reporting absence and it was difficult to identify. For example, someone was consistently missing the same day each week, having bursts of absence, or even working too long without a break.

LSH is now able to actively identify particular groups that have a higher sickness rate than the norm and also identify any particular wellbeing issues. Leading them to implement a wellbeing program and shaping the benefits and culture that would help turn wellbeing into a business performance indicator.

With the recent coronavirus outbreak, Lambert Smith Hampton was able to adapt their edays platform to set up an option on our sickness logging system for people to identify ‘self-isolation’ as a reason for being away from the office.