Guide to managing short term sick absence
Supporting information
This guide offers practical strategies for managing short-term employee sick leave, including policies and procedures, return-to-work interviews, monitoring and support mechanisms, and balancing compassionate leave with business needs.
Short-term sickness absences are inevitable in any business, but what might not be so clear is how to keep on top of them, to ensure they don’t become a recurring problem.
managing short term sick absence
Some employee sickness absence is unavoidable. Indeed, it is sometimes preferable for a legitimately unwell employee to miss work than to risk spreading his or her illness.
Short-term, intermittent, and persistent illness absence, on the other hand, may be disruptive and costly for organisations due to the management time necessary to address the problem and the cost of replacing hours missed with overtime or temporary workers.
This guide is intended to assist businesses in efficiently responding to short-term sickness absence by presenting them with all of the options available to help reduce absenteeism throughout the workforce to manageable levels. It contains guidance on:
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How to guarantee that organisational illness absence rules are regularly and fairly applied.
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Tools and approaches that line managers can use to keep short-term illness absence to a tolerable level.
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Investigating various forms of illness absence, particularly those involving employees in protected categories such as pregnancy and handicap.
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Monitoring illness absence patterns and identifying potential action points.
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Considering what corrective action, such as disciplinary, should be taken.
Policy on sick absence
An organisation should have an appropriate sick absence policy in place. The policy should include the following provisions:
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When and how to tell the employer if an employee is absent due to illness.
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When an employee is obliged to provide a GP with a Statement of
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What is this for?
Managing employee sickness absence effectively often requires a sensitive approach, coupled with a good understanding of the law. It can also be difficult to strike a balance between supporting your employee and managing him or her to reduce the unacceptable absence levels.
Having an attendance management procedure in place is a straightforward way of reducing the impact of absence on your business.
It creates a framework for you to manage absence, and sets clear boundaries for your employees. A well drafted and communicated procedure will enable you to fairly and consistently manage your employee sickness absence.
Employment law compliance
There’s no legal definition as to what constitutes short-term sick absence, but typically it’s any period up to four weeks.
