Blog Post
Sickness Absence
- By Sarah Wilkinson
- •
- 08 Sep, 2017
The effect this can have on your business and how to proactively manage employees back into the workplace.
On average, only a third of organisations monitor sickness absence levels. Do you know the absence levels for your business, and how much it's costing your business? The average cost of absence per employee is £522, with 6.3 days absence per employee, per year. Not to mention the indirect costs; team morale, workload, management time, effect on clients/customers and possible legal fees.
The CIPD's annual absence management survey (2016) found that the most common causes of sickness absence were minor illnesses (coughs, colds and sickness bugs), followed by stress.
People managers have a crucial role in managing absence. You need to ensure that not only do you have the right sickness absence policies in place, but that you also provide your people managers with soft-skills training to equip them with the fundamentals of managing absence and having difficult conversations (what they can and can't ask, and what they should be asking). You need to generate buy-in from your managers, ensuring they have a clear understanding of the absence policy and how to implement it.
As with all aspects of people management, no two cases are the same. There will always be an element of using common sense or discretion to apply flexibility in individual cases as appropriate. With the provisions under the Equality Act (2010), you'll also need to educate managers on how to handle absence related to a disability, and what reasonable adjustments may need to be considered. This can be a legal minefield so it's important that it's done right! Your managers will need to be confident, sensitive, with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to adapt their approach depending on the situation. They will also need to give their team their time and dedicated focus.
Effective absence management is about supporting employees with health problems stay in or return to work and balancing that supportive approach with taking a firm and consistent approach with employees who regularly take advantage of the absence policy, or who don't follow your notification procedure.
Other effective ways to manage sickness absence include:
Return to work interviews
The use of trigger mechanisms to review absence levels combined with the disciplinary process when necessary
Restricting sick pay
Involving occupational health professionals
Flexible working
At the end of this article is a case study from one of the managers that we work with, on the approach they took to managing absence within their team.
In addition to providing clear guidelines around the absence policy and how to apply this in practice, managers also need to be able to promote engagement and attendance, as this in turn will reduce absence levels. You need to create a culture where employees feel valued, supported and where there is a mutual respect.
This mutual respect is known as the Psychological Contract, which can be defined as the perceptions of the two parties, employee and employer, of what their mutual obligations are towards each other (Guest et al).
This is where effective and proactive people management is really important, because as soon as the psychological contract is broken, (e.g. if an employee feels unappreciated or unfairly treated), their discretionary effort will be withdrawn and they will be far more likely to wake up and think 'I don't want to go into work today'. Therefore, managing absence is about providing a supportive and engaging workplace prior to employees going off sick.
An increased focus on well-being will aid towards this preventative approach to managing absence. Proactively supporting well-being can prevent employees from going off sick, or help support employees with an issue before it becomes a real problem. In addition, it promotes your organisation as being a great place to work. Consider implementing a well-being policy into the workplace, if you haven't already got one.
CASE STUDY
Absence management, a manager’s shared experience
After a team member returned to work after a few days off with a chest infection, I was quite relaxed about the absence and the return to work process. I think that was my first mistake; considering it a return to work process. If you can, I’d recommend that when you’re carrying out a return to work meeting, you look on it as stage 1 of the absence management process. So, rather than a quick chatty cuppa while you whizz through and tick-off the questions on the return to work form, actually take some time out to consider how it might feel if you were to find yourself using this paperwork as part of the ‘evidence’ for a disciplinary meeting…
· Are you discussing each question in enough detail?
· Are you completing all the sections thoroughly?
· And most importantly, have you discussed the fact that this is step 1 of the absence management process?
· Actually; even before all that, have you given all your team members copies of the absence policy and the disciplinary policy?
· Have you made time to discuss both with all your direct reports at one of your team meetings?
I seriously advise you to do the last 2 actions pretty quickly if you haven’t done so already. Spending time on this away from any specific absences, allows you and your team a chance to read through and digest the policies and supporting processes - without the emotion of an actual sickness or disciplinary situation.
Many employees won’t realise that the absence policy can lead to the disciplinary policy. Make sure you and your team understand both. That’s Step 1.
Step 2 is making the time to work through the return to work form thoroughly if you have a member of staff who’s been off sick. And, before you close each return to work meeting taking time to remind them how the two policies interconnect, making sure they understand what will happen if they’re off sick again and the next stage in the process.
By doing these things you make the disciplinary process just a little bit easier to complete, if it gets to that stage. Hopefully it won’t.
The disciplinary process is not a nice thing to have to go through. I genuinely like and respect and trust all my team members, and I have no reason to doubt their circumstances if they are unwell and unable to make it into the office. They all work hard and demonstrate an immense amount of passion and loyalty to their jobs, our team and me as a manager. However, none of this is relevant and nor is it in question if they trigger the absence management or the disciplinary policies. As managers, we need to work through the supporting processes to ensure that all staff are treated fairly and that we have undertaken the necessary steps to evaluate what action needs to be taken.
So, when I found myself conducting my first disciplinary meeting with one of my team, I wasn’t prepared for how I would feel, or even how they might feel. I know it wasn’t a great experience for them, and thankfully I think I conducted the meeting thoroughly and fairly, and I think my team member could tell I was being objective and fair.
Immediately after that first incident, I spent time with my whole team carrying out Steps 1 and 2 So when the next team member triggered the disciplinary process, I think we both felt in a better position. We both knew it was coming, and although it still wasn’t one of the best jobs a manager has to do, it was (from my perspective) better than the first occasion. And I’m guessing that particular team member felt the benefit of us having discussed both policies openly before the trigger occurred.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you manage your employee's sickness: sarah@swchr.co.uk
The CIPD's annual absence management survey (2016) found that the most common causes of sickness absence were minor illnesses (coughs, colds and sickness bugs), followed by stress.
People managers have a crucial role in managing absence. You need to ensure that not only do you have the right sickness absence policies in place, but that you also provide your people managers with soft-skills training to equip them with the fundamentals of managing absence and having difficult conversations (what they can and can't ask, and what they should be asking). You need to generate buy-in from your managers, ensuring they have a clear understanding of the absence policy and how to implement it.
As with all aspects of people management, no two cases are the same. There will always be an element of using common sense or discretion to apply flexibility in individual cases as appropriate. With the provisions under the Equality Act (2010), you'll also need to educate managers on how to handle absence related to a disability, and what reasonable adjustments may need to be considered. This can be a legal minefield so it's important that it's done right! Your managers will need to be confident, sensitive, with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to adapt their approach depending on the situation. They will also need to give their team their time and dedicated focus.
Effective absence management is about supporting employees with health problems stay in or return to work and balancing that supportive approach with taking a firm and consistent approach with employees who regularly take advantage of the absence policy, or who don't follow your notification procedure.
Other effective ways to manage sickness absence include:
Return to work interviews
The use of trigger mechanisms to review absence levels combined with the disciplinary process when necessary
Restricting sick pay
Involving occupational health professionals
Flexible working
At the end of this article is a case study from one of the managers that we work with, on the approach they took to managing absence within their team.
In addition to providing clear guidelines around the absence policy and how to apply this in practice, managers also need to be able to promote engagement and attendance, as this in turn will reduce absence levels. You need to create a culture where employees feel valued, supported and where there is a mutual respect.
This mutual respect is known as the Psychological Contract, which can be defined as the perceptions of the two parties, employee and employer, of what their mutual obligations are towards each other (Guest et al).
This is where effective and proactive people management is really important, because as soon as the psychological contract is broken, (e.g. if an employee feels unappreciated or unfairly treated), their discretionary effort will be withdrawn and they will be far more likely to wake up and think 'I don't want to go into work today'. Therefore, managing absence is about providing a supportive and engaging workplace prior to employees going off sick.
An increased focus on well-being will aid towards this preventative approach to managing absence. Proactively supporting well-being can prevent employees from going off sick, or help support employees with an issue before it becomes a real problem. In addition, it promotes your organisation as being a great place to work. Consider implementing a well-being policy into the workplace, if you haven't already got one.
CASE STUDY
Absence management, a manager’s shared experience
After a team member returned to work after a few days off with a chest infection, I was quite relaxed about the absence and the return to work process. I think that was my first mistake; considering it a return to work process. If you can, I’d recommend that when you’re carrying out a return to work meeting, you look on it as stage 1 of the absence management process. So, rather than a quick chatty cuppa while you whizz through and tick-off the questions on the return to work form, actually take some time out to consider how it might feel if you were to find yourself using this paperwork as part of the ‘evidence’ for a disciplinary meeting…
· Are you discussing each question in enough detail?
· Are you completing all the sections thoroughly?
· And most importantly, have you discussed the fact that this is step 1 of the absence management process?
· Actually; even before all that, have you given all your team members copies of the absence policy and the disciplinary policy?
· Have you made time to discuss both with all your direct reports at one of your team meetings?
I seriously advise you to do the last 2 actions pretty quickly if you haven’t done so already. Spending time on this away from any specific absences, allows you and your team a chance to read through and digest the policies and supporting processes - without the emotion of an actual sickness or disciplinary situation.
Many employees won’t realise that the absence policy can lead to the disciplinary policy. Make sure you and your team understand both. That’s Step 1.
Step 2 is making the time to work through the return to work form thoroughly if you have a member of staff who’s been off sick. And, before you close each return to work meeting taking time to remind them how the two policies interconnect, making sure they understand what will happen if they’re off sick again and the next stage in the process.
By doing these things you make the disciplinary process just a little bit easier to complete, if it gets to that stage. Hopefully it won’t.
The disciplinary process is not a nice thing to have to go through. I genuinely like and respect and trust all my team members, and I have no reason to doubt their circumstances if they are unwell and unable to make it into the office. They all work hard and demonstrate an immense amount of passion and loyalty to their jobs, our team and me as a manager. However, none of this is relevant and nor is it in question if they trigger the absence management or the disciplinary policies. As managers, we need to work through the supporting processes to ensure that all staff are treated fairly and that we have undertaken the necessary steps to evaluate what action needs to be taken.
So, when I found myself conducting my first disciplinary meeting with one of my team, I wasn’t prepared for how I would feel, or even how they might feel. I know it wasn’t a great experience for them, and thankfully I think I conducted the meeting thoroughly and fairly, and I think my team member could tell I was being objective and fair.
Immediately after that first incident, I spent time with my whole team carrying out Steps 1 and 2 So when the next team member triggered the disciplinary process, I think we both felt in a better position. We both knew it was coming, and although it still wasn’t one of the best jobs a manager has to do, it was (from my perspective) better than the first occasion. And I’m guessing that particular team member felt the benefit of us having discussed both policies openly before the trigger occurred.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you manage your employee's sickness: sarah@swchr.co.uk