Consultant and HR Zone member Sandra Beale offers her advice on how to manage absenteeism and what policies and procedures you can put in place to ensure employees don’t “pull a sickie”.

According to the latest CIPD research, absence costs on average £598 per employee per year in the UK. If totalled up this represents a huge annual cost of millions to UK business.

Private sector companies have always had lower absence rates in comparison to the public sector, and SMEs lower than corporate organisations. This reflects the probable inability of SMEs to offer occupational sick pay and who rely more on SSP, which is unpaid for the first few days.

Measuring the problem is paramount, otherwise how does a company know how bad their absence situation is and whether it needs tackling?

Before a company can measure the problem, however, they need to have some form of monitoring in place such as absence forms that employees fill in each time they are sick, collated centrally and placed into report format for the senior management team to discuss on a regular basis.

If the report information contains statistical graphs, any problem can be evident immediately including particular individuals. These reports can then be collated and measured or benchmarked against industry standards to establish the situation.

Absence management policy

An absence management policy must exist within an organisation so that employees and managers alike know how absence is to be managed. Clear guidelines for both parties should be included for the avoidance of any doubt.

One of the main methods to prevent absence is to have sickness reporting procedures in place whereby an employee has to phone in to speak to their line manager within one hour of their starting time. It must be the employee who phones in (not a friend or relative). They must phone in and not send a text or email.

The idea behind this is that if an employee is going to throw a sickie and may not necessarily be ill they may think twice if they are going to have to lie to their manager on the phone.

Another good method to prevent absence is that a manager always conducts a return to work interview even after their employee has only had one day off. Again the idea is that an employee may find it uncomfortable to have a one-to-one if they have fraudulently taken the day off.

If the return to work interview is documented, this will provide evidence for the future on how a situation has been dealt with whether the absence has been genuine or not.

Disciplinary procedures

If an absence is not genuine, there is always the disciplinary policy that can be used. Managers should be trained in conducting a structured return to work interview to get the best out of the situation.

However, if absence is genuine, and a series of short term absences are giving concern, there is always use of an occupational health advisor to rely on who can give professional medical advice on managing a situation. This may be the introduction of reasonable adjustments in the case of a disability or gain use of the disciplinary policy if not a genuine illness.

Occupational health is a very valuable resource to call upon in the case of managing long-term sickness which may or may not be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. An advisor can give advice on whether the problem will continue long term, how to provide a phased return to work and managing an ill-health retirement.

The advice of an occupational health advisor can provide defence at a tribunal in case a company is faced with a potential discrimination claim.

Many organisations are now trying to look at creative ways to manage absence and instead of using the ‘stick’ method whereby heavy use of the disciplinary policy is made, are offering more holiday for those employees who do not have any time off sick in a given period.

Even if this is just a half or full day it can often make a big difference. For many employees it seems to provide excellent motivation to encourage them to come to work every day, only taking paid absence in the form of holidays.

For more information, contact Sandra Beale FCIPD on 07762 771290 or email info@sjbealehrconsult.co.uk