Three tips on managing sickness

Monday 6th February 2017 was this year’s ‘national sickie day’. Although there will undoubtedly be some genuine illnesses and therefore justifiable reasons for being off work ill, statistics show that the first Monday in February has historically been the day of the year with the highest sickness absence across the country.

By Karen Credie, KMCHR.

So what can you do to curb the instances of employees calling in sick, not only 'national sickie day' but throughout the year?

Here are our top three suggestions.

Have a robust sickness policy

The effective management of unauthorised sickness absence starts with prevention. You should have a clear policy for managing sickness absence and unauthorised absence to include details of how employees inform you they are sick, the policy and purpose of ‘return to work interviews’ and any triggers towards disciplinary action. You should also consider your company policy on paying staff when they are absent with illness.

Employees on an employment contract are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) when they have been ill for 4 or more days in a row (including non-working days). However there is no legal obligation to pay employees for any periods of illness shorter than this – something that can act as a deterrent to staff considering taking ‘sickies’. As a note, to qualify for SSP, employees must give you the correct notice and provide proof of their illness after 7 days off.

Ensure procedures are followed

If you make it easy for employees to take days off sick and fail to ensure procedures are followed strictly, you are potentially opening the door for future sickness absences. As such, if you have sickness policies and procedures in place, be sure to follow them. This includes insisting staff follow illness reporting procedures and taking action if they do not, equally ensuring managers are thorough in conducting ‘return to work interviews’.

Follow up on repeat sickness absence

If you effectively record sickness absences, it will be easy to spot when any particular trends emerge. For example, there may be certain employees that seem to favour being off on a certain day of the week. Should you spot any patterns such as this, you may decide that it’s necessary to further investigate an individual’s sickness absences.

The first place to start is to probe deeper during the employee’s ‘return to work interview’.

You might mention that you have noticed frequent sickness absenteeism and are concerned that it is starting to affect the employee’s work or performance.

If you are not satisfied with the reasons given for the absence, you could request some form of evidence for the illness, although a GP’s note will generally only be provided if the employee has been absent for 7 days or longer. You might want to engage the services of the ‘Fit for Work’ scheme, fitforwork.org, or an Occupational Health specialist in the event of persistent absence. Employers should be very aware of how they approach suspected unauthorised sickness. Even if you have your suspicions about a certain employee, it may be very difficult to prove any wrongdoing. As such, you should broach the issue with sensitivity, whilst at the same time ensuring you have tightened any gaps as per our above tips.