Effectiveness of Preventive Coaching.

Psychosocial health problems are important causes of disability and absenteeism in the Netherlands.
The difficulty to re-integrate employees who are on sick leave due to these problems is strongly supported by the available evidence. Obviously a better strategy would be to prevent absenteeism as much as possible.
In a randomised controlled trial among employees, who are at increased absenteeism risk due psychosocial health problems, the effectiveness of coaching using a preventive coaching programme will be investigated.
By means of a screening instrument employees from participating companies will be identified and, in addition, they will receive the baseline questionnaire.
Respondents on this questionnaire will be randomised over the experimental group and the control group.
The experimental group will receive the coaching programme; the control group will receive care as usual. Two follow-up questionnaires (at 6 and 12 months) will be sent to both groups.
Primary outcome measure is absenteeism.

1. A screening instrument, consisting of predictive factors, can be used to predict which employees are at risk for sickness absence due to psychosocial health complaints;

2. Coaching is effective in preventing sickness absence and improving general well-being.

N/A

The intervention group will receive the coaching programme. The central guideline of preventive coaching is to provide insight in the situation of the employee, improve his notion that he is responsible for his career and life and to improve his ability to manage the changes.
The programme consists of 9 meetings between the employee and the coach. In two of the meeting, the supervisor of the employee will participate.