Canadian employers are concerned about the cost of health-related absences, but most have not taken active steps to address the issue, according to a new study.

Rising mental health claims, primarily related to stress, depression and anxiety disorders, were the top health and productivity-related concern for Canadian organizations, listed by 56% of participants in the 2005 Watson Wyatt Staying@Work survey. However, only 31% of survey participants indicated that they are likely to implement programs to address the issue of rising mental health claims over the next one to two years.

"Organizations simply don't know what to do with mental health claims," said Claudine Ducharme, a Montreal-based consultant with Watson Wyatt Worldwide's health care and disability management practice.

The social stigma involved with mental health issues is a contributing factor to the inaction of companies, she said. Only 5% of organizations have any plans to deal with the social stigma of mental illness, which may keep sufferers from coming forward and prevent organizations from improving results, the survey found.

The aging of the workforce, which has contributed to an increase in long-term disability claims, was the second leading health and productivity-related concern for Canadian organizations, listed by 54% of participants.

Despite growing concern about the costs related to employee absenteeism, though, most employers have not taken steps to measure those costs or investigate the root causes of disability claims, the survey found.

Only 35% of companies measure short-term benefit costs per employee, and, again, only 35% track costs per employee for long-term disability benefits, the study says.

Meanwhile, just 36% of organizations said they track the reasons behind long-term disability claims, and only 38% said they do so for short-term disability claims. Many companies do not have the systems in place to gather this information or simply fail to question employees who take shorter absences about the reasons they are taking time off from work, Ms. Ducharme said. "They don't look at the big picture," she said.

Employers can take several steps to address the issue of absenteeism, including training managers to help them identify employees who are having difficulties at work, identifying what the organization's risk factors are and challenging management practices that can cause employees to be more stressed and/or less productive, said Ms. Ducharme.

"Presenteeism"-when employees are at work but their productivity is affected by personal issues-has also emerged as a new and growing concern, with 28% of respondents citing it as an issue but only 16% saying they plan to do something about it within the next year or two, she said. Part of the problem is that employers do not know how to measure the impact of presenteeism, said Ms. Ducharme.

The Watson Wyatt "2005 Staying@Work" survey collected responses from 94 midsize and large Canadian organizations. For more information, visit www.watsonwyatt.com/canada.