Sickness Absence Management

As a business owner, something you’re going to have to deal with a some point is sickness absence. Most employees may only have 1 or 2 sick days per year. However, you may come across situations where an employee will be absent from work due to a long-term illness. These situations can have an impact on your business and it’s important that you’re prepared for this.

Is sickness absence giving you a headache?

If you’re getting ground down by the legalities of sickness absence or the HR side of handling employees, then now’s time to stop. We’ve been helping businesses – like yours – get the balancing act right for more than 20 years, and we can do the same for you too.

Whether it’s help putting policies into place, having difficult conversations or following a fair disciplinary process, we’re here to take the stress out of sickness absence.

We’ll create a bespoke sickness policy for you. We’ll guide you through what to do if an employee’s off ill. We’ll help you spot sickness, absence and lateness trends. We’ll talk you through your long-term sickness responsibilities. We’ll ensure your business is a safe and healthy place to work. And we’ll set you up on our online management platform, Atlas, so that you can effectively and efficiently log and report sickness absences.

The benefit for you? You’ll free up time to focus on what you do best: running and growing your business. Simply fill in the form below for more information on how we could start helping you and your business today.

Managing sick pay entitlement for all your workers

In order to be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), there are certain requirements you need to look for:

• They must be classed as an employee at your business
• They should earn more than £120 per week
• They have been employed with the company for more than three months
• Have become ill, shielding, or ‘self-isolating’ for four or more days in a row (including non-working days)

Steps to take if an employee is absent due to COVID-19

If an individual in your workplace has been asked to self-isolate, they’ll need to provide you with an isolation note.

They may be required to stay off work because someone in their household has coronavirus, they have been advised to do so by the NHS Track and Trace service, someone in their bubble has coronavirus, or they themselves have symptoms of the virus.

Employees who are clinically vulnerable are able to return to work as of the 2 December 2020 in all three tiers and employers should have the correct measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. To make sure you’re doing everything you can to reduce the risk of infection, you can visit our Coronavirus Hub.

Return to work interviews

When an employee’s been off sick – regardless of how long for – you should conduct a return to work interview on their first day back. If their first day back isn’t practicable, then you should arrange it for as soon as is convenient.

The return to work interview should be held by someone with the authority to do so – like the employee’s manager or a member of your HR team.

When it comes to the interview, you should cover the following topics:

• The reason the employee was absent
• If they saw a GP during their time off
• If they were prescribed any treatment or medication and if this will affect their ability to carry out their role.
• The support you can offer them as an employer

Reporting procedures and recurring absences

If an employee didn’t follow the right absence reporting procedure, you should take the return to work interview as an opportunity to remind them of the correct procedure.

And, if an employee’s repeatedly absent due to sickness or displaying suspicious absence patterns, you should address this during the return to work interview too.

Last but not least, remember to document – in writing – everything that’s discussed during the return to work interview. This will give you an audit trail to refer to should the employee’s absence amount to disciplinary action.

Sickness policy

To ensure everyone knows your stance on sickness absence, it’s important to have a clear and well-communicated sickness policy in place. Your policy should cover areas like:

• Notification of absence
• Period of absence
• Returning from absence
• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
• Contractual sick pay (if relevant)
• Recovery of sick pay.

How Atlas can help

With our online management platform, Atlas, managing sickness absences couldn’t be simpler. You can easily log when an employee’s off ill and, with its reporting facility, you can quickly download information like:

• Length of absence period or days or hours
• Reason for the absence
• Any comments made when logging the absence.

Reports can be exported for many employees at once, and can span back to include days, weeks, months, or years’ worth of data – depending on how long you’ve been set-up on the system for.

How we can help

If you are getting ground down trying to manage sickness absences, Citation can help ease your burden. We have been helping businesses like yours get the balancing act right for more than 20 years, and we can do the same for you too.

Whether it’s helping  you put policies in place, tackle difficult conversations with your employees, or guide you through a fair disciplinary process, we’re here to take the stress out of sickness absences.

We’ll create a bespoke sickness policy for you and guide you through what to do if an employee’s off ill. We’ll help you spot sickness, absence and lateness trends, as well as talk you through your long-term sickness responsibilities. We’ll make sure your business is a safe and healthy place to work. And we’ll set you up on our online management platform, Atlas, so that you can effectively and efficiently log and report sickness absences.

Get in touch with the team on 0345 844 1111 or hello@citation.co.uk to see how we can start supporting you today.