Sickness absences are at an all-time high

The number of fit notes issued in the UK hit a record high of 10.4 million last year, in part attributed to the economic crisis, as well as the impact of the pandemic, which has led to more stress-related absences.

With many businesses already experiencing difficulties in recruitment and retention since the pandemic, further pressures like this on workforces are most unwelcome. Increased absences might be having negative effects on productivity, as well as increasing costs, so it is important to manage them proactively.

Begin by ensuring you have a robust absence policy that communicates to staff what they should do if they feel too unwell to work, tells them whether or not they will get paid and at what rate, what certification is required, what happens when they return to work and how the company will handle repeated or long-term absence. Robust measures which we would recommend include:

• ensuring that staff telephone personally to say they are ill (not by text or email) and how long they expect to be absent.

• letting the company know of any meetings or important deadlines.

• continuing to update the company on a regular basis.

• conducting return-to-work interviews when they are back at work.

These measures discourage spurious claims of sickness by making the act of taking sick leave very visible, and showing staff that it is actively monitored – fine if they are ill, but less easy or comfortable to throw a sickie.

Recording all absences is a must as it allows you to track the attendance of individual employees and check for patterns of absence if you deem it necessary. This could be, say, to confirm a suspicion that someone is taking a disproportionate number of Mondays or Fridays off and is not, in fact, ill.

By monitoring absence, you will acquire the evidence you need to make good decisions, so be able to support your employees where required and, in other circumstances, if necessary, enforce your company policies on absenteeism. Remember to make allowances for someone with a disability related illness. 

Lots of minor absences can be more serious for your business than a prolonged sickness. One model you could adopt to help inform your evaluation of absence in your workforce is the Bradford Factor, which can underpin your enforcement of the absence policy objectively. The Bradford Factor is a formula used to measure employee absence, calculating how many instances of unplanned absence an employee has in a year. As the number increases with each instance of absence, rather than the length, it assumes that repeated absences are worse for business than long-term illnesses. 

Here’s the formula:

S² x D = B

S is the number of instances of absence. You multiply this number by itself.

D is the number of days absent in a 52 week period.

B is the Bradford Factor score.

Staff scores are applied to a framework of trigger points for warnings and ultimately dismissal.

Its arbitrary nature has pros and cons, but there are too many nuances for it to be the sole reference for judging the significance of absence levels. Better to have it in the background to help inform your decision-making alongside good line management, such as return-to-work interviews.

The number one cause of absences was minor illnesses, like coughs and colds. There’s not much you can do about them, but it may prove to be a one-off problem caused by the relaxation of social distancing requirements in 2022, post pandemic. Musculoskeletal problems account for just over 10% of absence, and mental health about 8%. Together they represent almost one in five absences. Both of these are conditions that you may be able to manage more effectively within your health and safety obligations. Actions like reviewing staff workstations, particularly for those working from home, to ensure they are suitable and checking workflows and workloads to ensure they are not too burdensome may help.

If stress or anxiety are at play, you’ll want to be supportive, but it’s not yours or your managers’ jobs to act as counsellors. You may find employee assistance programmes (EAPs) good value for the business. They provide expert, independent support services for mental health and other issues like debt advice, taking the burden away from you.

Check that your culture encourages a healthy work-life balance to support both physical and mental health. Ensuring that workloads are evenly distributed, and that staff know when to switch off will reduce the risk of stress. In the face of so much absence a robust approach is important, not least so that those who do show up every day don’t get burnt out covering for persistently absent colleagues.  

A skills matrix is a tool you could consider for managing the impact of absence rather than absence levels themselves. A skills matrix maps each employee against the skills and capabilities needed in your business.  It has broader uses than just managing absence, but it will show you if particular services are vulnerable to someone being off sick. If you know that, you can build contingencies in advance, for instance training other people in core skills or having freelancers available, should one person’s absence leave you critically short.

For more support with sickness absence management, contact your local HR Dept today.

The HR Dept is now the UK’s largest network of HR professionals providing outsourced HR support. Our clients vary, from tiny start-ups to established brands, across all industries. We pride ourselves on delivering cost-effective employment law advice and HR solutions that leave you free to concentrate on growing your business.

Your local office is HR Dept, Sussex-by-the Sea:

Contact Kirsti Peters, HR & Business Support Coordinator
SBTSinfo@hrdept.co.uk
01323 403500
01243 214404