Managing

Sickness
Absence

Introduction
Sickness absence can take different
forms. It can be a series of short-term
absences or it can be one or more
episodes of long-term absence.
Employers are often unable to manage
this type of absence effectively because
they do not have accurate records.

Biography:
Sharon De Mascia
Sharon De Mascia is a Chartered
Occupational Psychologist and a
Chartered Scientist. She has over
25 years experience of delivering
wellbeing, change management,
entrepreneurial leadership and
other organisational initiatives across
both public and private sectors. In the
past she has worked with: Marks &
Spencer, the Vita Group, the Strategic
Health Authority, the Highways Agency
and The Co-operative Insurance
Society. More recently, she has worked
with: Santander, ATL, MMU, and the
New Charter Housing Group.
Sharon commenced her career in
clinical psychology and then specialised
in business psychology, which gives her
a unique insight into wellbeing in the
workplace. In the past, Sharon worked
for the Employment Service offering
wellbeing services to internal and
external clients. More recently, she has
helped the Centre for Mental Health
(formerly the Sainsbury Centre for

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In addition, many employers are wary

about dealing with individuals who
have been off on sickness absence for
a long time, usually, because they are
not sure about what they can and
should be doing to manage the situation.

Mental Health) to manage and deliver

a training programme to help managers
manage stress and wellbeing/mental
health in the workplace. She has also
worked with a range of organisations
across all three sectors to help them
create emotional resilience, manage
stress and facilitate higher levels of
wellbeing and engagement.
Sharon has extensive project/change
management experience and is Prince2
qualified as well as being a qualified
coach. She is a supervisor for the
global MBA at Manchester Business
School and has authored a number of
articles. Sharon had a book published
in 2012 by Gower entitled, Project
Psychology: Using Psychological Tools
and Techniques to Create a Successful
Project. She has also had a summary
of her book reproduced in a new book
by Professor Darren Dalcher (2014).
The book is entitled Advances in Project
Management: Narrated Journeys in
Unchartered Territory. Gowe.

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Why is it important to
manage sickness absence?

The vital statistics on

sickness absence (CIPD 2015)

Sickness absence costs UK employers

29 billion per year according to the UKs
premier business lobbying organisation,
CBI (2015). The Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development (CIPD) says
this equates to 609 per employee per
year, a significant amount of money,
particularly for smaller employers.
This is not the end of the story, because
this figure only represents the direct
cost of sickness absence. There are also
indirect costs, which are more difficult
to measure and include things like:

The average level of employee

sickness absence is 6.6 days per
employee. This figure has not changed
dramatically over the last five years
but there is a slight downward trend
(with the exception of manufacturing
and production). Having said that,
there is considerable variation across
organisations, with some reporting
extremely high levels of absence.

The cost of any temporary employment

to cover the work of the employee who
is absent.
Increased stress on co-workers and
lowered morale when they have to
cover the work of absent colleagues.
Increased risk of mistakes when
experienced and knowledgeable staff
are absent, which can have a negative
impact on customers and also on
company brand.

Average absence levels are lowest

in the private services sector and
highest in the public services/non-profit
sectors. Absence levels also tend
to increase with organisation size,
regardless of sector.
British workers take more than four
times as many sick days off work than
some of their global counterparts e.g.
UK workers report double the amount
of sickness absence as US staff.

Reduced overall productivity as a result

of having fewer staff in the workplace.

The average level of employee sickness

absence is 6.6 days per employee
British workers take more than four
times as many sick days off work than
some of their global counterparts

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Additional Points to note

Across all sectors, organisations that
had made redundancies in the previous
six months were most likely to include
stress among their most common
causes of short- and long-term
absence.
Nearly a third of organisations report
that absence has been affected by the
caring responsibilities of employees;
14% report caring responsibilities have
had a moderate or considerable impact.

Length of Absence

Leading causes
of sickness absence
There are many different causes of sickness absence
with some differences between Short-Term and Long-Term
sickness absences.
Table (1): Leading Causes of Short and Long Term Sickness Absence:

Short Term Sickness Absence

Long Term Sickness Absence

Minor Illness e.g. colds, stomach upsets

Acute Medical Conditions e.g. heart

problems, cancer, strokes

Musculoskeletal Injuries e.g. neck strain,

repetitive strain injuries

Stress

Stress

Musculoskeletal Injuries e.g. neck

strain, repetitive strain injuries

Back Pain

Mental Ill Health

Recurring Illness

Back Pain

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Just under two-thirds of working time

lost to absence is accounted for by
short-term absences of up to seven
days. The remaining third of lost time is
accounted for by long-term absences
i.e. four weeks or more (20%) and 16% is
attributed to absences of between eight
days and four weeks.

CBI (2015) claim that one in eight sick

days were non-genuine. In addition,
20% of UK employers believe that staff
take sickies as an occasional perk.

How Do You Manage

Sickness Absence?
Managing absence effectively is about
supporting employees with health
problems to remain in/return to work.
It is also about understanding the level
and nature of absence so that you can
identify those employees who may
taking advantage of the organisation.
Managing sickness absence does not
have to be difficult. There are some basic
procedures that you can put in place
that will give you an understanding of
the level and nature of sickness absence
in your organisation.

Length of absence is also related to

organisational size, regardless of sector,
with smaller organisations attributing
a higher proportion of their absence to
short-term leave compared with larger
organisations.

Actions to take
1. Record all sickness absence.
2. Monitor and regularly review sickness
absence rates. Be vigilant about
the causes of sickness absence and
anything you may be able to do to
avoid future absences.

3. Have processes in place to address

sickness absence.
4. Develop a simple Sickness Absence
Policy so that employees are clear
about what is expected of them and
what support is available.

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01
Record all sickness absence
You need to keep a record of every
occurrence of sickness absence and
the duration of that absence i.e. start
date to end date. You also need to
record the reason for that absence,
as this will help you understand what
you are dealing with. The reasons
for sickness absence can be many
and varied so as well as recording
the actual reason, you may want to
allocate it to an accepted category
of sickness absence e.g. that used by
the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) as this will help when you are
summarising your absence statistics.

HSE commissioned the Institute of

Occupational Medicine (IOM) to develop
a sickness absence reporting tool for
SMEs. This tool is now available on their
website and is free to use:
www.hse.gov.uk/sicknessabsence/sart/
The tool provides a database to record
and report on your sickness absence.
If you are a micro business and the tool
is too sophisticated for your needs, you
could simply use a spreadsheet to record
your sickness absence information,
using the HSE tool as a guide.

02
Monitor and review your
sickness absence rates
You should summarise and check your
sickness absence data on a regular
basis (e.g. quarterly) in order to:

Identify patterns in sickness absence,

by cause, department, calendar
period etc.

Identify the most frequently reported

causes of absence

Compare sickness absence levels

between departments, staff grades or
with other companies of similar size
and sector.

Describe the levels of sickness

absence across your workforce

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Managing short-term
sickness absence
If an employee is off for three days or
more with sickness absence then when
they return to work, you should carry
out a Back to Work interview with the
employee. A Back to Work interview
is simply a brief discussion about the
employees absence and their illness.
The purpose of the Back to Work
interview is to give the employer the
opportunity to offer support, where the
employee is experiencing difficulties. It
also makes the employee feel missed
and valued by their employer.

03

A process for managing

sickness absence
When you are running a small business,
dealing with sickness absence can be
very disruptive. Consequently, you
need to have a framework in place to
manage it. There are some basic rules
that you need to establish with your
employees regarding the reporting of
sickness absence e.g. you need them to:

Advise you of the nature of the illness

and when they expect to return

Speak to you or their manager/

supervisor as soon as possible if they
are not coming into work as a result
of sickness absence, it is acceptable
to ask that employees let you know
within an hour of their usual start time.

Short- term sickness absence and

long-term sickness absence need
slightly different approaches in order
to effectively manage them.

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Provide a self-certificate if the illness

lasts less than 7 days
Provide a Fit Note from their GP, if the
illness lasts more than 7 days.

There is an example here that of a

Back to Work interview that you can
use. You will probably only use a small
part of the interview format for a
short-term absence because there will
probably not be very much to discuss:
www.soas.ac.uk/hr/procedures/leave/
sicknessproc/returnworkguide/
Keep a brief summary of the Back to
Work discussion for your records. It
will be useful if there are subsequent
absences and it will also provide an
audit trail of your attempts to help and
support the employee.
Regularly reviewing your sickness
absence data will quickly reveal any
problems so the next step is to think
about how you deal with them. If your
data reveals that an employee is having
high levels of short term sickness
absence, then you will need to have a
look at the employees sickness absence
record to see if there are any particular

patterns to the absence e.g. is the

sickness absence always on Mondays or
Fridays, which might suggest that they
are using sickness absence to extend
their weekend? Are the absences linked
to school holidays or sporting events?
If you identify any such issues then
you will need to have a chat with the
employee to feedback your findings.
This gives the employee the opportunity
to tell you if they are experiencing any
difficulties e.g. lack of child care. If the
employee is genuinely experiencing
difficulties then you can discuss how
best to address them. If the employee
does not have any satisfactory
explanation for the absences then
you can advise them that you expect
their attendance to be improved in the
future. If their absence pattern does not
improve then you may have to carry out
further investigations and possibly go
down a disciplinary route.
The research shows that those
employers who offer flexible working
patterns tend to have lower sickness
absence rates. So, if you have an
employee who is taking short-term
sickness absence to manage domestic
issues then having flexible start and
finish times, may alleviate the problem.
Remember also, that an increasing
number of employees now have caring
responsibilities for older relatives which
can have an impact on their ability to
attend work regularly. A little flexibility is
often very helpful in allowing employees
to more effectively manage their home
and work responsibilities.

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Managing long-term
sickness absence
Absences of 8 days or more, account
for more than a third of all absences
and 20% of all absences are four weeks
or more (CIPD 2015). Consequently, it is
important to have a process in place to
help get employees back into work.
The vast majority of employees who
take sickness absence are genuine
so your role as an employer is to try
and help your employees. It is in your
interest to get them back into work
and being productive as soon as the
employee is well enough. There is a myth
that employees have to be 100% fit to
return to work, this is not the case. With
support, employees can often return to
the workplace before they are 100% fit.

Actions to take
With longer absences e.g. more than
15 days, you will need to keep in regular
touch with your employee and work with
them to identify any barriers that may
prevent them from returning to work.
You might need to obtain expert advice
from the GP or from Occupational
Health experts. If your employee is not
able to return to work imminently, then
you will need to discuss the idea of a
Back to Work Plan with them.

If an employee has still not returned to

work after 28 days of sickness absence,
then you will still need to maintain
regular contact with them but you will
also need to work with the employee
to develop a plan of actions and there
may be a requirement to implement
reasonable adjustments, in order for
your employee return to work. You will
have to seek expert advice if necessary
and agree the recommendations with
the employee.
Sometimes, despite everyones best
efforts, it is not possible to return a
sick employee to full or even partial
employment, but it is important to
explore all options before jumping
to conclusions. This is particularly
important where employees may
have disabilities that fall within the
Equalities Act (2010).

Disability discrimination and

the equalities act
It is unlawful to discriminate against
anyone with a disability and the
Equalities Act (2010) protects employees
with disabilities. Employers are legally
obliged to provide reasonable
adjustments for employees with
disabilities that fall within the remit of
the act. The act covers both physical
and mental health conditions, which
means that stress, in certain
circumstances, can fall within the remit
of the act.
Reasonable adjustments can include a
range of options e.g.
Changes to Shift Patterns
Changes to the Job
Changes to the Work Environment
There are mechanisms that can assist
you with getting an employee back into
the workforce e.g. the Fit Note and the
Fit for Work Service

The Fit Note

The Fit Note replaced the Sick Note
in April 2010 and a GP now has two
choices when completing a fit note. He
can recommend that an employee is:
Not fit for work
May be fit for work.
If the doctor selects may be fit for work,
one of the following four options also
has to be selected:

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The GP then has the option to add

any additional comments to help the
employer support the employee in
returning to work. GPs now have to
advise on fitness for work in general,
rather than fitness for the employees
specific job e.g. It may be possible
for the employee to return to work
gradually or with lighter duties, The GP
can help you with this.

The Fit for Work Service

After reviewing the UK sickness
absence system, the Government has
implemented a new Fit for Work Service
to help SMEs tackle long-term absence
from work. This service is aimed at
smaller organisations who cannot afford
occupational health support. The Fit for
Work Service offers:
01 Advice: access to health and work
advice for employees, employers
and their GPs through a website and
Freephone helpline.
02 Assessment: working employees
can be referred by their employer for
a (45 minute) telephone assessment
with an appropriately qualified
healthcare professional. The Healthcare
professional will work with your employee
to develop a Back to Work plan.
This service is free to SMEs who do not
have the funds for occupational health
support and it can be accessed via:
www.fitforwork.org

Phased return to work

Amended duties
Altered hours
Workplace adaptations.

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04
Implement a policy
on sickness absence
It is helpful to have a policy on Sickness
Absence, however basic, as it clarifies
what should happen when employees
are absent from work as a result of
sickness absence. Your Sickness
Absence Policy Should:
Provide details of any contractual
sick pay and how it relates to statutory
sick pay.
Explain when and who employees should
notify if they are not able to attend work.
Advise employees when (after how
many days) they need to provide a
self-certificate form
Advise employees of when they need
a fit note from their GP
Advise employees that, it they
become ill, you will help and support
them in returning to work as soon as
is practicable.
Advise employees that they will have
a Back to Work interview when they
return from more than 3 days of sickness
absence. It is also helpful to explain a
little about the purpose of the Back to
Work interview and what it will cover.

Managing short-term
sickness absence
As well as being vigilant about absenteeism,
you also need to be vigilant about
Presenteeism. This is where people remain
in work, when they are ill and operating
below their usual productivity levels. If you
manage sickness absence too harshly,
you run the risk of creating a culture of
fear, where employees are frightened

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to take sickness absence, then they will

opt for presenteeism and come into work,
even when they are ill and/or contagious.
Presenteeism is common when people are
experiencing mental health conditions (e.g.
depression/anxiety) as they do not want
anyone to know about it. Unfortunately,
employees with mental health conditions
will not be able to remain in the workplace
long term and when they do go off on
sickness absence, the length of the
absence is likely to be longer than if they
had taken sickness absence when they
first started experiencing the mental
health conditions.

Wellbeing and avoiding

sickness absence
Forward-looking companies will invest
in health and well-being services to
tackle the issue before absence starts to
hit their bottom lines. This is particularly
relevant for start-ups and SMEs, where
the cost of absence can be crippling. Jon
Andrews, HR consulting lead at PwC.
The research into wellbeing shows
that those organisations that facilitate
wellbeing and good health in the
workplace, experience lower rates of
sickness absence. Facilitating wellbeing
does not have to cost a fortune and
often a few simple steps can reap
great rewards. These two websites
have resources that you can utilise to
facilitate wellbeing in your workforce.
www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards
www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/wellbeing/
workwell-model

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BrightHR offers intelligent

people management software
that allows you to keep on
top of staff absenteeism.
Track sickness, lateness and
holidays quickly and easily,
and store this information in
one easy-to-use place.