The ‘sickness season’ is around the corner. These coming months are recognised for having higher absences due to cold and flu viruses, and as a result sickness absence levels are expected increase.
An increase in sickness absence levels can impact the business and its people, and in particular can result in a reduction in productivity. During the seasonal peaks e.g. the lead up to Christmas, businesses face challenging times in managing their resources. With the expected increase in absence levels and lower attendance, it is important that the business manages their resources to ensure that the shifts are covered without unnecessary impact on other employees’ workloads.
It is vital that businesses have their sickness absence processes in place and that these are communicated to managers and employees. It is also important to consider resource plans to accommodate an influx in sickness absence.
Your sickness absence plan!
The first step in planning, is to ensure that employees are aware of the sickness absence process and that this is outlined in your policy.
Sickness absence policy – having a robust sickness absence procedure in place will enable the business to manage absences and monitor any increased absences.
Reporting absences is a vital part of the employee’s responsibility. The policy should provide guidance on when the employee should contact the manager to make them aware of the absence and the continued communication channel should the employee continue to be absent from work.
Where the employee has repeat absences that exceeds the ‘expected level of absence’ then the next step is for the manager is to pick up formally.
Sickness absence training – it is the responsibility of the manager to discuss absence with their people, maintain regular communication during absence, and to conduct a return to work meeting when the employee returns to work after every sickness absence period (that includes periods of one days absence).
It is vital that managers are trained to manage the sickness absence process, and to ensure that absence is monitored. Awareness to be fair and not to discriminate is key in this process, the business does not want to be liable for a discrimination claim where the manager has inadvertently said or done the wrong thing.
Manager training includes:
- Absence reporting process
- Fit for work notes
- Handling short term absences
- Handling long term absences
- Managing absence review meetings
- Managing physical and mental disabilities in the workplace
- Absence reporting and statistics
Your HR team / HR consultants can provide support, to ensure that the correct process is followed, that disabilities are recognised and the appropriate adjustments are provided to support the employee, and that a general fairness and consistency is applied to sickness absence.
For advice on how to strengthen your sickness absence process, to ensure that the business is prepared for employee absence, and to discuss your management training, then please get in touch with our HR Consultants on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and we will be in touch.