Managing Absence
Managing absence can be a little bit stressful and problematic at times for you as an employer, but it is an essential part of your Human resources tool kit. It’s going to be virtually impossible for you to eradicate staff absence entirely as your business grows, but how you manage and challenge this issue is important to help reduce disruption and keep your business moving forward.
Despite being unpredictable, there are steps you can take to reduce the effects of absence. This will put you in a more comfortable position if ever you need to challenge any staff about absence, whilst ensuring your approach is reasonable and fair.
Create a Sickness Absence Policy
If you don’t already have one, it’s probably a good time to get a written absence management policy in place that will set out what you expect of your staff in relation to absence. This will be an important tool and should set out how you will support your staff, clarify your expectations and also how you’re going to manage any absence.
Within the policy you should consider clear trigger points at which a formal procedure may apply, for example a certain number of occasions of absence within a 12 month period or single absences of more than a certain number of days. Include details too of what the formal procedure would be.
Look to ensure the policy explains what is expected of the employee if they are going to be absent. It’s a good idea to ensure they notify you by a specific time, with the reason for their absence and an indication of their likely return date if appropriate.
If your policy is clear and effectively communicated to your team, any challenge will be easier for you to tackle.
Monitoring Absence
Monitoring is the first step to Managing Absence and understanding the reasons behind any absence and you may want to start implementing a system to record all types of absences regardless of their length. Make sure that you also record the cause and reasons behind the absence.
You can use the data collected to analyse and spot any trends, such as whether there is an increase during school holidays, around weekends etc.
Return to Work Interviews
Begin to have “return to work” interviews so you can gain a better insight into the absence reasons and think about keeping a written record of these meetings.
They are important because if you ask your staff to talk about their absence and provide some details on their condition, you can put appropriate support in place if required, but also identify if there may be a more deep rooted issue or possibly a wider performance problem.
Be aware that if the absence lasts up to and including 7 days, the employee can self-certify their absence, meaning that they need no formal evidence of their illness. If the employee was sick for over 7 days, they should provide you with a fit note from their doctor which may say that they are unfit to work for a specified amount of time, or may say that they can return to work immediately if certain adjustments are made.
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Keep A Paper Trail
In general its good practice to keep records of any meeting or correspondence with your staff relating to absence including notes of telephone conversations or telephone messages. This enables you to review any patterns and will provide supporting evidence should the absences ultimately develop into a wider performance issue.
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