Russell Transport: Fighting the flu

Drivers at Russell Transport often work independently, constantly moving in and out of offices and interacting with people from all walks of life at multiple workplaces and delivery destinations.

These conditions were identified as contributing factors to the incidence of staff contracting and spreading the influenza virus, especially during flu season. This was resulting in an excessive number of sick days being taken.

Management recognised this as an issue and realised there was an opportunity to increase productivity by improving absenteeism rates caused by the flu during flu season.

The program

The flu shot program began in 2008 when Russell Transport started offering staff free influenza vaccinations.

An external provider was engaged to administer the shots on site, which reduced the cost of  shot per person and increased the efficiency of the process.

The key objective was to have 60% of the workforce vaccinated in April each year.

The goals were to:

• build a significant level of protection against the flu for individuals
• reduce the chances of Influenza spreading through the group at company worksites
• proactively reduce the amount of sick leave taken due to the flu and keep productivity levels constant throughout the year.

Results

By the end of 2012 the program had achieved about a 50% uptake of the flu shot program across the company and absenteeism levels reduced by 10% during the target period for those people who had the flu shot.

There was a clear reduction in the emergence and severity of the flu in the areas and  worksites where the majority of people had received the flu shot. These areas consequently had higher rates of attendance, sustained performance and focused work.

Case study submission

Name: Julie Russell
Title: Manager, Support Services
Phone number: 07 3131 0134

More information

Preventing illness and injury is an investment in your workforce. Find out what your organisation can do to improve health and wellbeing in your workplace:

• call us on 1300 362 128
• visit Work health: health and wellbeing in the workplace.