Manage absence and sickness

As an employer, you should ensure you have appropriate systems in place to manage unexpected staff absences. These absences can affect productivity and profits and can even lower morale and motivation.

Top tips to manage workplace sickness and absences 

The following top tips will help you to better manage unexpected absences in your business.

1. Understand the reasons for employee absence

It's important to be aware of potential factors contributing to the absence levels in your business. Reasons for absence could be personal or work-related. Some common reasons include unsafe work practices; heavy workloads; family problems; abuse from customers; conflict at work; ill health; drug or alcohol dependency; and bad weather. See how to manage absence and sickness.

2. Put effective policies and procedures in place

You can improve the impact of absences by putting effective policies and procedures in place and applying these fairly and consistently. These should be backed up by agreeable working conditions, good management, and a focus on staff motivation. Having an absence and sickness policy brings clear business benefits including lower insurance costs, higher rates of staff retention, and improved productivity. Having set procedures in place can also help you to prevent small problems from developing into larger ones, measure and monitor absence and identify underlying problems. Read about the benefits of having an absence and sickness policy.

3. Spend time developing your absence and sickness policy

You should develop your absence and sickness policy and procedures in consultation with line managers and workplace representatives. Your policy could include: when time off is permitted; how and when the worker should notify you of absence; when a worker should submit a medical statement or fit note from their healthcare professional; statutory sick pay arrangements; consequences of not complying with the policy; and responsibility for keeping attendance records. Absence and sickness policies: what to include.

4. Prepare for and manage unexpected absences

You should adhere to your absence and sickness policy and procedures when an instance of unexpected absence occurs. There are also a number of steps you should take to prepare for such an event: accurately record and monitor absence; train managers on how to handle absence; provide special equipment if appropriate; and set targets for absence levels. You should also conduct return-to-work interviews after absences, interviewing sensitively to assess if there are any underlying causes. You could also develop other initiatives to encourage good attendance such as the introduction of flexible working or introducing counselling and healthcare packages. Manage workplace absence and sickness.

5. Measure and monitor absence in your business

Monitoring absence in your business allows you to find out how much working time has been lost, where the absence occurs most, how often individual workers are absent, and whether there is a pattern of absence. With this information, you should be able to take the appropriate action to improve the situation. See measure and monitor absence and sickness. Not least, measuring and monitoring absences might reveal annual patterns of stress points which can help you prepare for and manage absences to a degree eg restrict (within contract limits) leave at such times.