A quick guide to absence management

Our HR consultants understand the operational difficulties caused when your staff call in sick.

Requests for GP fit notes were up by nearly 80% with half of those related to poor mental health. The impact of this on SME’s is in excess of £900 million a year.  

All of this points to the need for businesses to manage absence.

What is the impact of unplanned absence?

Other than the financial costs and disruption to operations, it can also have an adverse impact on the rest of the team who are having to step up to cover, take on additional tasks when they may already be under pressure themselves.

It’s also important to bear in mind that frequent short-term absences might also be a symptom of other underlying issues such as stress, bullying, dissatisfaction in the role, feeling undervalued or even a toxic culture.

How do you know if your people are off sick because they are genuinely unwell or because of other reasons? If you manage absences and support your staff, you can identify and deal with any concerns quickly.

Do you have a sickness absence policy?

If you do, when was the last time this was reviewed and does it still reflect what happens in practice.  

A sickness absence policy should be clear in the expectations the organisation expects from employees who are away from work due to sickness absence, what they will be paid, what support they may receive, levels of contact required even if there is a GP fit note stating the individual is unfit for work and what happens once the individual is fit for work.

How do you manage unplanned absences?

Do you record unplanned absence so you can see if there is a patten emerging?  Recording absences as they happen helps to provide you with an accurate record of absences which you can then discuss with the individual at a return-to-work interview.  Recording absences also help you to identify if there is a pattern to their absences which again you can put to the individual to provide an explanation.  This might help to uncover something other than poor health causing the absences.

Recording absences help to put the employer in control of managing the sickness absence and take proactive steps to bring about a reduction in the level of absences.

One method that you may use to record and monitor absence is the Bradford Factor. This is a scale that helps you give weighting to any absence to help you spot areas of concern more easily.

Having a good HR system, like Breathe HR, is a great tool in helping you to manage sickness absences at a very competitive price for SME’s.

Reasons for absences

Other causes of absence, where it is not genuine illness, can be due to injury that was either caused in or out of work, taking time off to care for dependants is another reason we come across for unplanned absences.  Having policies that cover other absences again can help to education your staff about what they can do if they do need to take time off to care for dependants rather than calling in sick.

Unfortunately, we also see a small number of staff who take contractual paid sickness leave as an entitlement and resist returning to work until the paid leave has been exhausted.  Again, having a clear policy and practice on how to proactively manage absence can help to bring individuals back to work.

Employers should encourage their staff to take annual leave so that they can rest, take time away from work, recharge and pursue leisure time. This can help reduce sickness absence levels in a company as staff feel better, physically and mentally, having had a break from work.  Through the pandemic a lot of employees were not taking annual leave because they were not going away on holiday.  Annual leave is not about going away but it’s about having a break from work.

Then there are those individuals who come into work even when they are clearly unwell.  Individuals should not be made to feel bad for taking time off when they are genuinely unwell. When they come into work feeling unwell, they are more likely to spread a cold, flu or even other infections diseases.  Then you have to also consider how productive are they in the workplace when they are not well.

Dismissing someone for ill health

Dismissing someone for ill health is a fair reason for dismissal.  However, you need to follow a clear policy and dismissal should be a last resort.

It’s important to have up to date medical advice from a GP, Consultant, Occupational Health Physician before deciding whether to proceed with a dismissal.  

Someone with a long-term illness may be considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010. This means they have cannot be discriminated against because they have a disability, or because they are connected to someone with a disability.

Our top 5 tips to reduce absence

1. Flexibility

We have all had to get used to working from home, especially if someone was self-isolating having tested positive for covid.  If someone is not feeling 100% but feels well enough to work, can they work from home or work shorter hours if they have to care for someone who is sick.  Bear in mind if the individual is not well enough to work, then they should not be encouraged to work.

2. Be clearer with your guidelines

Having a clear sickness absence policy, time off for dependants and medical appointments helps to provide clear guidelines to your staff.  

3. Introduce a wellbeing initiative

Supporting a culture that encourages wellbeing does not necessarily have to be expensive.  Encouraging staff to take regular annual leave, taking lunch breaks and not working excessive hours, bring healthy snacks in instead of cakes all of the time, maybe even a health cash plan which covers some of the cost towards dental and opticians are all inexpensive methods to help harbour a wellbeing culture.

4. Introduce better communication

When individuals have a safe space to discuss their concerns, any problems can be dealt with before they become critical.  Feeling valued in the workplace will reduce absence levels where genuine sickness is not the reason for the absence.

5. Train your managers

Having policies is a start, but very easily these policies become a tick box exercise and gather dust in the staff handbook.  What is far more effective is training line managers to identify problems, whether that is absenteeism or presenteeism within their teams and how they can manage them.

If you’d like any further advice, our specialist Human resource management team is here to help. Lunar HR offers HR support and advice across Worcestershire, Birmingham and other local areas in the West Midlands. Just give us a call to arrange a conversation.