Management Guide on Managing Staff Sickness Absence Introduction This Management Guide is intended to advise and assist managers in managing sickness absence within their teams. It supplements the policies and procedures contained within the Personnel Handbook and provides guidelines and advice on standards and best practice. It may be revised from time to time as appropriate. Sickness absence can be either short-term or long-term and managers need to adopt a different approach to these types of absence. In addition, every individual case has different characteristics and needs to be managed according to its circumstances, within these general guidelines. Advice is available from the Human Resources department and Occupational Health to help managers handle individual cases. Absence Notification Procedure All staff are required to follow the Absence Notification Procedure (Section 3.11 of the Personnel Handbook). In summary, a member of staff must notify their sickness absence to their line manager or appropriate other person as soon as possible, and normally within half an hour of normal contractual starting time. This should be in person unless in exceptional circumstances this is not possible, when the next of kin or nominee should contact the member of staff s line manager on their behalf. Contact should normally be by telephone and not via voice/ text messages, or email. Notification of absence on the second day is not mandatory, but is required if absence continues to a third day. Staff should complete a Self Certification Form for the first seven days absence from work. A medical certificate/fit Note is required if absence continues for an eighth day and beyond. Manager recording of absence and paperwork The self certification form (green) must be completed by the member of staff and submitted to the line manager on the first day of return to work. Any outstanding Fit Notes should also be submitted. Sickness absence should be recorded on the reverse of the Leave card, or on some other recording system which departments have developed for sickness recording. The paperwork and certificate checking should form part of the Return to Work discussion outlined below. If a member of staff works the Extended Working Week, there are implications for working hours and the form (pink) relating to the making up of any time should also be completed on their return to work.
Return to Work discussions On return to work, the line manager should meet with the member of staff informally to discuss absence, complete relevant forms and ensure any support that can be reasonably expected is offered. This meeting should take place in a confidential environment and not in an open-plan office or an area where other staff can listen. These meetings are intended to be held for every occasion of absence, to ensure consistent treatment of staff. In cases where staff work patterns mean contact with managers is irregular, this discussion may need to be held over the telephone. The discussion should be carried out in an appropriately sensitive manner and should include, inter alia: A welcome back Confirmation the member of staff is well enough to return An update on work issues to take into consideration work covered in their absence and current workload Any work-related issues that may have caused the absence A review of the record and patterns of absence to decide if there are issues that require further discussion A more detailed guide to handling Return-to-Work discussions is given in Appendix 1. Managers should have a record of staff absence for the current year recorded on leave cards or elsewhere but to supplement this, absence reports are sent to managers by HR to identify any potential problems (see below). Sickness Absence reports and the Bradford Factor A manager may consider that a further discussion and possible follow-up is needed and this will be at their discretion. As a guide, and to ensure consistency across the University, the following may act as prompts for consideration, although this should not be regarded as an exhaustive list: repeated absences which may or may not be supported by medical evidence; significant absence which is above the norm for the University or the sector; a pattern of absences is emerging, for example Mondays and Fridays; repeated absences for the same reason, or; other indicators as appropriate from time to time such as the Bradford factor. HR produce and send to managers sickness absence reports on a monthly basis. The Bradford Factor is a mechanism used to highlight potential
problems with a member of staff s absence levels. These will be highlighted on the report but should not necessarily be interpreted as unacceptable levels of attendance. They are intended as a guide for managers, at their discretion, to consider if it is time to have a follow-up discussion with the member of staff. For example, a period of absence following an operation or accident should be treated differently from a pattern of repeated short-term absences. For reference purposes, the average days lost to sickness absence for the Education sector in 2008/9 was 7.5 days per person. In the first instance you must consult your Senior HR Adviser or Occupational Health if you have any concerns, to discuss and look at options and how best to proceed, and certainly before taking any action under the formal procedures. Action when there are concerns If, following a Return to Work discussion, a manager has concerns about a member of staff s levels and/or pattern of short-term absence, they may decide to follow this with further meetings and/or an investigation into absence levels. This in most cases is appropriately done through the informal stage of the Capability procedures (section 1.18 of the Personnel Handbook), and you are advised to read these procedures and get advice from HR on this before taking any action under informal or formal procedures. Absence review - Informal approach If you decide to use the informal Stage 1 of the Capability procedures, you should arrange to meet the member of staff informally not long after the last return-to-work meeting, to discuss any issues in more detail. You should have the up-to-date record of absence available, possibly for the last 2-3 years if appropriate, and have prepared your comments and questions about the absence levels, issues this causes you and what improvements you expect. The discussion should explore the reasons for absence with the aim of identifying practical steps that might be taken to reduce future absence levels. It may emerge that there are reasons other than sickness for the absence, such as personal problems, and a constructive and helpful approach to this situation would be appropriate. However, you may also suspect there is an underlying medical cause on which you and the member of staff may need further advice. In this case, you may discuss a referral to Occupational Health (see below). You should consider what support the member of staff may need to help them improve their absence levels. It is advisable not to ask intrusive questions regarding medical matters as this is classified as sensitive personal data under the Data Protection Act and staff may choose to keep this confidential. At the end of the meeting you can consider setting a target for absence levels in the next 1 to 3 months, to identify to the member of staff what you would consider acceptable in the circumstances of their case. This will require close review by the manager over the agreed timescale and a follow-up
review meeting at the end of the period. Following this, there may be a further monitoring period of 2-12 months to encourage the improvement to be sustained. Absence review Formal approach If an informal approach does not resolve the issues, a manager may move to the formal Stage 2 of the Capability Procedures, section 4.2. It is a similar process to the informal stage in that a meeting is arranged, but staff can be represented/accompanied by a trade union officer or work colleague, and there are set timescales to follow, with more formal documentation to prepare. At this stage, you should involve your senior HR adviser to support and advise you. At the meeting, the manager should outline their concerns over absence levels and support this with evidence of absence. Concerns, impact on the team and the service, support and medical issues should all be discussed. An action plan should be agreed at the meeting which identifies acceptable levels of absence in the following 1 to 3 months. A medical referral to Occupational Health may be discussed and agreed at this stage. A Level 1 caution may be given be given at the end of the meeting and staff should be informed that failure to improve may lead to a Level 2 final caution, and possibly dismissal. The manager should review absence levels at the end of the review period, and if levels have improved, they should inform the member of staff that the improvement will continue to be monitored throughout a further monitoring period of between 2 and 12 months. If absence levels have not improved or been sustained, a second formal meeting may be held, following the same format as the first. A Level 2 final caution may be issued at the end of this meeting, with the member of staff warned that failure to improve and sustain the improvement in absence levels may lead to dismissal. Absence will continue to be monitored through a review period and a further monitoring period to ensure sufficient time to improve absence is given. Dismissal on the grounds of unacceptable absence If absence continues to be a problem, serious consideration should be given to using the Dismissal procedures (Section 9.1 of the Personnel Handbook) to terminate employment on the grounds of unacceptable levels of absence. Where appropriate, other options such as redeployment or stepping down should be considered as part of the review process. Appendix 2 gives indicators from the Employment Tribunals on what factors employers need to consider when contemplating dismissal. Long term absence
The management of medium to long-term absence, which should be considered as continuous absence of 4 weeks or over, requires a different approach to short-term repeated absence. Regular contact should be maintained with the absent member of staff, other than in exceptional cases where they have requested contact from someone other than the manager. Occupational Health should normally be contacted for advice when absence is likely to exceed 3 weeks and their view sought on possible support or work adjustments made when the absent person returns to work. Options that may be considered include a phased return to work, temporarily reduced duties and other reasonable adjustments, depending on the circumstances. If absence continues, and a return to work does not seem likely in the foreseeable future and/or occupational sick pay has run out, other options such as ill-health retirement or dismissal on the grounds of unacceptable absence should be considered but these should be through discussion with the Senior HR adviser and Senior Occupational Health adviser. In all cases, a decision will need to be made before absence reaches 12 months. The role of Occupational Health Occupational Health (OH) plays an active role in managing staff with both short and long-term absence issues, as described above. A fuller outline of the role of OH is given in section 3.5 of the Health and Safety handbook, available on the website. Referrals to OH may be made through self-referral by the member of staff or by the manager on behalf of the member of staff (see paragraph 3 of section 3.5. as above). All information is treated in strict confidence, unless the member of staff agrees for details to be discussed. If managers receive a Fit Note from a GP which indicates a member of staff may be fit to return to work with adjustments made to their duties or working hours, they should contact Occupational Health for an initial discussion and advice. Pregnancy-related absence Care and advice should be taken when dealing with sickness absence during pregnancy, to ensure pregnant women do not suffer a detriment as defined in legislation. HR can advise further on this. Disability issues Particular care needs to be taken where absence is related to a member of staff s disability, as this is covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The Act requires employers to make reasonable adjustments to duties or working conditions to accommodate someone who has a disability as defined under the Act. This means any condition which has a substantial impact on normal day-to-day activities, and has lasted, or is expected to last, for 12
months or more. This includes mental conditions such as depression as well as physical conditions. Advice from OH is strongly advised if you have a member of staff with a disability. The type of reasonable adjustment employers may be expected to make are given in Appendix 3. Relevant HR policies and procedures Sections 3.8 and 3.11 of the Personnel Handbook are the policies and procedures relevant to absence and can be referred to for further information. The Capability procedures are in Section 1.18 of the Handbook. HR Contacts If you have any questions with regard to Sickness Absence in relation to the policies and procedures or if you have any concerns about a member of staff in your team, please contact your Senior HR Adviser or the Head or Deputy Head of HR.