How to manage absence

There are lots of things to consider, first and foremost is to develop and communicate an absence management policy.

✅The return to work process

A return to work interview is a short and informal meeting held between the employee who has been absent and the employer. Your policy should stipulate this meeting is a requirement following a period of employee absence.

✅The reporting procedure

This should include how and when to report sickness absence, whether contact must be made each day or less frequently and what information must be provided.

✅Evidence

This section covers what's required for self-certification and when medical evidence (i.e. a fit note) is required, as well as any requirements to undergo examinations.

✅Unauthorised absence

The policy should be clear about the consequences of failure to follow the procedure and/or provide evidence.

✅Pay

You should include what payments will be received, such as statutory sick pay and any entitlements to company sick pay, as well as any eligibility criteria for these payments.

Absence management policy checklist

Long-term absence

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Research shows that the longer an employee is off sick, the less likely they are to make a successful return, after six months of being absent, there’s only a 50% chance of the employee making a successful return.

Welfare meetings

A welfare meeting is an effective tool for managing long-term absence. In short, it’s an informal meeting with the employee to discuss their state of health, any available prognosis, and the likelihood of a return to work. The welfare meeting should also include a discussion about what steps (if any) you can take as an employer to facilitate the employee’s return to the workplace.

Long-term absence

Phased return to work

A ‘phased return to work’ includes returning to work on reduced hours, lighter duties or different duties.

For instance, if someone’s been on sick leave due to an accident that affected their physical health, and part of their job requires heavy lifting; that element of their job would be omitted from their duties.

Of course, you and your employee should agree on a plan for how long the phased return will last. For example, you might agree to review how things are going after a month and then decide to increase the working hours or duties, or you might decide to continue with the changes for a little longer.

Note that you should continue to review the employee’s health and wellbeing in the workplace and make new adjustments if necessary.

Long-term absence returners

Reasonable adjustments

This is relevant where employees have developed a disability which causes them to be absent from work.

A ‘reasonable adjustment’ is a change to remove or reduce the effect of an employee’s disability so they can do their job.

Examples include:

Providing the right type of phone for an employee who uses a hearing aid.
Providing office space on the ground floor for someone who uses a wheelchair.
Replacing a desk chair with one designed for an employee who has a disability affecting their back.
Giving one-to-one support to help an employee suffering from anxiety.
Allowing a phased return to work for an employee who’s been on long-term sick leave because of their disability.

Access to medical reports

Depending on the openness of your employee, you may not always have all the information you need to understand when they can return to the workplace, and to support them in doing this. The Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 (AMRA) gives employers the right to access reports provided by medical practitioners in connection with employment. Of course, the Act also gives employees the right to withhold their consent from certain information being provided about them by their doctors.

Managing short-term absence & AWOL

Short term absence

Where an employee has frequent short periods of sickness absence, you should make sure they follow your company policy relating to reporting sickness and providing evidence. You should also investigate the reasons for the absence. It may be appropriate to obtain a medical report on the employee, to ascertain, among other things, if there’s an underlying cause of the absences. Depending on the circumstances, it may be appropriate for you to instigate, either as a disciplinary or capability process.

AWOL

First up, try to make contact. If no contact is made, then it’s time to put pen to paper and invite the employee to a meeting (potentially a disciplinary meeting) to allow the employee to provide an explanation for their absence. If the employee fails to respond to the invite, you can take action in line with your disciplinary procedures.

Non-compliance is costly.

With Moorepay you can have access to CIPP qualified experts and you can have the peace of mind that your process is kept legislatively compliant. This applies to every asset of absence management.

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