Recent figures published by the CIPD indicate that employee absence is rising and has reached an average of 7.8 working days per annum across the UK. This marks a sharp increase when compared with the pre pandemic levels of 5.8 days per annum reported for 2019. Stress related absence continues to be identified as the leading cause of long term absence as well as a significant factor for short-term absences. When high levels of employee absence are combined with the widespread recruitment and retention issues reported across many sectors at present, this can create a very difficult environment for businesses to maximise productivity and achieve their plans for growth.
What is ‘absence management’?
All businesses need their staff team to be available for work and fit to perform their duties at their full potential. Unplanned absence due to sickness can be very difficult to manage due to reduced productivity, the cost of sick pay/cover, impact on customers as well as other employees.
Absence management is the approach taken by a company to reduce employee absence and improve attendance levels across the workforce. It covers everything from initiatives to encourage health & wellbeing right through to formal processes to deal with excessive and persistent absence due to serious ill health.
In this article we’ve highlighted 5 top tips for employers to implement effective and legally compliant approaches to absence management while still ensuring a positive workplace culture where employees experiencing ill-health feel valued as well as supported.
Tip 1: Ensure you have a clear Absence Management policy
An absence management policy helps ensure consistency in terms of how the business keeps casual employee absence low while still ensuring support for employees with genuine health issues. Most policies include:
- Clear employer expectations for staff who can’t come in to work e.g. who do they need to tell, by when and by what means. It is reasonable to expect employees to get in touch via phone call before their scheduled shift time.
- Requirements to submit medical certification. If an illness lasts 7 days or less, the employee can self-certificate. However, if it lasts longer than a week, a doctor’s note is required.
- Sick pay provisions during the absence. Employers aren’t required to pay staff in full for time that they are absent however may choose to pay either full pay, or half pay, for a defined period as part of the benefits package. As a minimum, they must provide Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for absences that last more than 3 days and up to 28 weeks.
- A commitment to carrying out a Return to Work interview when staff have been off with sickness absence. The interview is aimed at welcoming the employee back, checking that they are fully fit to return and asking questions around any additional support required.
- Absence review thresholdse. the frequency of absences, or total days absent, within a defined period (such as a rolling year) which will trigger further investigations and actions by management.
Tip 2: Effective systems to record absence
- Effective systems for recording, analysing and reporting on employee absence are critical to identifying the root causes and addressing them. This includes the need for good processes to record and store the relevant data around all absences and report on emerging patterns. Absence certification is ‘sensitive data’ and requires careful consideration as part of the business’s wider approach to GDPR/data protection compliance.
- High levels of employee absence – particularly stress – can be a sign of other issues for the business including a toxic culture, poor line management capability, poor recruitment decisions and/or insufficient training. The business’s approach to absence management should seek to identify the root cause and address it.
- Avoid a situation where employees are taking sick leave because they’re unaware of the other options available to them. Use your onboarding programme and ongoing good communication to make sure your staff understand their options. This might include parental leave for working parents or a discussion about workplace support/reasonable adjustments for someone suffering from a health condition.
Tip 3: Ongoing communication
- When a staff member is off work sick, it is essential that you keep in touch with them so you have the information you need to manage your business. Contact should be reasonable so that employees don’t find it intrusive or it becomes a barrier to their recovery. The right approach needs to include:
- Asking why they are off and when they may be in a position to return is acceptable
- Asking if is there is anything the company can do to assist them to return
- Genuine concern for their wellbeing to ensure they continued to feel valued by the company
Tip 4: Adapting your approach – short term absence or long term absence?
- Short-term absence is the term used to describe absence for shorter periods often for casual (less serious) health conditions though these absences may be connected to an underlying health condition. Approaches to dealing with short term absence include:-
- Establishing if there is an underlying condition and whether the absences are connected;
- Where there is no underlying cause, consider setting appropriate targets for improvement. Where improvement targets have not been met, you may be able to take disciplinary action to deter further absences and minimise the impact on the business;
- Where short-term absence is the result of a disability or other underlying condition, it is usually advisable to seek a medical report from either the employer’s GP or a qualified Occupational Health physician.
- Employers need to be particularly proactive in the case of employees with a disability as the law requires you to make any ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help the employee overcome any disadvantages they encounter because of their condition.
- Long term absence is the term which usually refers to one continuous period of sickness absence lasting a few weeks or longer. Managing long-term sickness absence can often be more difficult, as employers are left in a difficult position with less staff struggling to cover the workload. Approaches to dealing with long term absence include:-
- Keep in contact with the employee during their absence.
- Consider a phased return i.e. reduced hours initially building up to normal contractual hours can help them gradually adjust to the working environment again.
- Where the anticipated return to work date is not known, employers should always seek medical evidence to facilitate planning and make informed decisions. Medical reports should answer questions around the employee’s current capabilities in work whether the employee would be able to return to work in the foreseeable future.
- Where no return to work appears likely in the foreseeable future, the employer can consider termination on the grounds of ill health however it should only be as a last resort when all other possible options and potential support has been exhausted.
Tip 5: Being proactive about Employee Wellbeing
Ensuring a positive approach to the wellbeing of your staff can help reduce stress and improve overall fitness which can in turn help reduce your overall employee absence rates. Considerations may include introducing an employee counselling service, training around managing stress or suchlike.
All of these measures help create a positive culture around absence management. This is contrary to damaging working environments which promote ‘presenteeism’ i.e. where staff who are ill drag themselves into work instead of taking time off get better. Training line managers and supervisors on Managing Absence can help to ensure consistent messaging across the workforce.
Final considerations
If absence is proving a challenge for your business, have a chat with us about how we can assist you manage these issues. Our experienced team can help you to introduce training to support your key people managers to confidently deal with these matters and ensure that you have all of the necessary up to date policies and procedures to help make sure that your business is protected. We pride ourselves in understanding the specific needs of your business and providing a tailored approach to answering any issues you might have at any stage of these processes.
