4 Ways DocHQ Is Helping Reduce Absenteeism and Increase Productivity
- Written by: iPMI Global
Absenteeism from work in the UK is at a 10-year high. A recent survey by CIPD and Simplyhealth found that UK workers were absent an average of 7.8 days a year in 2022, up from 5.8 days before Covid.
The three main causes of long-term absence from work were mental health, acute medical conditions and musculoskeletal injuries. Preventing these types of illness and injury should therefore be a priority for every company if they want to reduce absenteeism and keep their workforce as healthy and engaged with work as possible.
Not only does this help productivity but it also saves business costs, as staff won’t be taking as much time off work, and any employees suffering discomfort can be assessed and rehabbed rapidly and efficiently. Working while suffering with pain is shown to affect employee productivity, so ensuring a pain-free workforce will also have a positive financial impact.
This is where DocHQ can help. The trusted health and wellbeing partner offers a remote physiotherapy service – DocHQ Physio – for employees to use in their own time, at home or at work. After an initial virtual consultation with a chartered physiotherapist, users are provided with an exercise programme which they can perform online, assisted by DocHQ’s innovative AI software that tracks users’ movements as they perform the exercises, providing guidance and feedback as they work out.
With that in mind, here are 4 ways DocHQ is helping to reduce absenteeism at work:
- Preventing injury via DocHQ Physio
DocHQ Physio not only helps employees recover from injury – including injuries sustained at work from desk-based back or neck injuries, or manual labour/heavy lifting conditions – but it also helps build muscle and bone strength through straightforward, easy-to-perform exercise programmes.
Increasing strength in this way aids in the avoidance of common musculoskeletal injuries that might otherwise have occurred, meaning that workers are less prone to injury and therefore take less time off work in the long-term.
- Reducing time off work with remote online physio appointments
If an employee does get injured and requires physio assessment or treatment, this can result in absence from work as they travel to and from the physio to attend their appointments.
As DocHQ Physio is an entirely remote service, employees can book appointments at flexible times and don’t have to travel to see their physio – everything from the initial assessment to the regular exercises set on the programme all take place online.
- Increasing exercise adherence rates with advanced AI tech
A recent study by scientific journal PLOS One found that adherence rates to traditional physiotherapy were just 43%, with the majority of those who stopped doing the rehab exercises quoted as saying their lack of adherence was due to logistics or accessibility issues.
DocHQ overcomes this issue due to two factors: firstly, appointments and exercises can be done anywhere, any time – so there’s no issue with the logistics of travelling to a gym for example, as the exercises are designed to be performed at home (or work) with little to no equipment.
The second and more important reason is that DocHQ’s cutting-edge AI software provides guidance, tracking and motivation for users. Any incorrect movement is detected as the body-tracking software maps 112 body parts as the user moves, so they will be told how to improve technique and form in real time – both visually and through audio. It also prompts users to keep up the programme, and provides the motivation many require to persevere towards full recovery, injury-free and with stronger muscles and resilient joints.
- Real-life physios track user progress for faster recovery
The AI software also achieves something else that traditional physio programmes don’t; users’ progress on the platform – including how many reps and number of exercises completed, where technique needs work, which muscles are weaker than others – is sent to the physio after every session. This means they can track progress and tweak the programme to ensure users progress with speed, with the ultimate target being a return to work as quickly as possible (and certainly quicker than via traditional physio).
If you would like to know more about what DocHQ can do for employees, visit dochq.co.uk or contact DocHQ sales development representative Joe Stewart
