Managing Employee Sickness Absence: A Guide for Employers

How to effectively manage employee sickness absence

Managing employee sickness absence can be tricky. It’s one of those areas where you need to tread carefully, show empathy, and still have a clear handle on your legal responsibilities. And for many employers, the hardest part is getting the balance right between genuinely supporting someone who’s unwell and managing absence levels that just aren’t sustainable for the business.

When it comes to managing sickness at work, a good starting point is understanding that short-term and long-term absence need different approaches. What works for occasional, frequent absences won’t always be right for longer periods of ill health, and treating them the same can cause problems for everyone involved.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to manage sickness absence in a way that’s fair, but also practical including:

• How to reduce frequent short-term sickness absence
• How to measure time lost to sickness absence
• Drafting an attendance management procedure to suit your business
• How does an attendance management procedure help you reduce frequent short-term absence?
• Managing long-term employee sickness absence
• When to seek medical advice
• Our top tips

How to reduce frequent short-term sickness absence in the workplace

When short-term sickness absence crops up regularly, one common misunderstanding is that absence review meetings are about questioning whether someone was genuinely unwell. In reality, that’s rarely the point. The issue isn’t whether the illness was real, it’s the impact that frequent, short-term absence can have on the business and the wider team.

Having an attendance management procedure in place is one of the simplest and most effective ways to manage that impact.

It gives you a clear framework for handling sickness absence and sets expectations that everyone understands. When it’s well written and clearly communicated, it allows you to manage absence fairly, consistently and with confidence, while still treating people with respect.

A key part of any attendance management procedure is the use of trigger points. These help you be upfront with employees about what level of absence becomes unsustainable for the business, so there are no surprises later on.

Trigger points keep conversations focused on the facts. They make it clear when absence has reached a level that can’t continue, without turning the discussion into a debate about whether someone was genuinely ill. That way, the focus stays on managing attendance in a practical, objective and people-first way.

• How to implement trigger points to help manage employee absence
  

“Most sickness absence issues aren’t about people taking advantage. They’re about employers trying to do the right thing without clear information or support. Getting the right advice early can make the difference between a situation improving and one that escalates into something much harder to fix.”

Emily Hunter, People Services Director (Specialist Expertise)

How to measure time lost to sickness absence

If you don’t already use trigger points to help manage sickness absence, it’s worth taking a step back and thinking about how you measure the time being lost in your business.

Having a clear and consistent way of tracking sickness absence makes a real difference. It helps you understand the impact absence is having, spot patterns early, and manage attendance in a way that’s fair and informed rather than reactive.

There are four main ways employers tend to measure time lost due to sickness absence:

• Lost time rate
• Frequency rate
• Individual frequency rate
• The Bradford Factor

Each of these gives you a slightly different view of absence and can help highlight trends that might otherwise be missed. Most importantly, measuring absence properly puts you in a much better position to have constructive conversations with employees and support them to improve their attendance over time.

Many businesses choose to use HR software to do this for them. All-in-one systems like People HR or Breathe can make tracking and reporting on sickness absence much simpler and more consistent.

Putting an attendance management procedure in place, with clear stages and trigger points, is one of the most effective ways to manage sickness absence. It gives you structure, clarity and a fair process that works for both your business and your people.

• Four ways to measure time lost to sickness absence
  

Drafting an Attendance Management Procedure that makes sense for your business

When you’re putting together an attendance management procedure, it’s important to think about the kind of organisation you are and the culture you want to protect. What works well in one business might not be right for another.

For example, if you employ professionals in knowledge-based roles, a couple of days’ absence may not be a major concern, as long as work is getting done and deadlines are still being met.

On the other hand, in a production or shift-based environment, even a few days of sickness absence can have a more immediate and direct impact. You might need to bring in agency workers or reshuffle shifts to keep things running, which can quickly add cost and pressure.

That’s why there’s no single ‘right’ level of absence. Every organisation will have its own view of what’s acceptable, and your attendance management procedure should reflect that reality.

To manage short-term absence effectively, you first need clear procedures that allow you to deal with attendance issues consistently. Just as importantly, those procedures should make it clear to employees what levels of attendance aren’t sustainable for the business.

Even in a small business with only a handful of employees, having an attendance management policy with clear trigger points helps you act early and manage absence proactively, rather than waiting until it becomes a bigger problem.

• How to use metrics and absence figures to measure absence
  

How does an attendance management procedure help you reduce frequent short-term absence?

Putting a procedure in place with clear absence trigger points has been shown to reduce frequent short-term sickness absence.

The purpose of absence policies and procedures is to flag when someone’s short-term absence is starting to become a problem, with the aim of helping them improve their attendance. In most cases, that clarity alone is enough to turn things around. If attendance doesn’t improve, however, further trigger points may be reached, and in some situations this can ultimately lead to dismissal.

When an employee reaches a trigger point, it’s important to pause and consider whether there could be an underlying medical reason behind their absences. If there is, it may be that the employee has a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

Where that’s the case, the approach should shift. Rather than treating this purely as an attendance issue, you’re advised to manage it as a capability matter and follow the process outlined below under “Managing long-term sickness absence”. This helps ensure the situation is handled fairly, lawfully and with the right level of care for the individual involved.

Managing employee sickness absence: long-term sickness absence

Let’s look at how to manage sickness absence when that absence is long-term.

Managing frequent short-term employee sickness absence using trigger points is very effective. However, if an employee has an underlying medical condition or is absent long-term, you’re advised to treat this as a capability.

The key question to focus on is: How long is the employee’s current pattern or period of absence going to last?

Often managers will want to understand when it is fair to dismiss someone, i.e. how long does someone need to be absent, or have frequent periods of absence when they also have an underlying medical condition, before you can dismiss them? The answer is not straightforward as it will always depend on the circumstances.

What is considered reasonable?

Rather than thinking about how long the individual has been away from work, managers should be asking when the employee is likely to return and whether or not it’s reasonable to wait that long.

That said, the length of time an individual has been absent is still relevant as this could be a good indication of whether or not someone is likely to return in the future. If someone has been absent for six months for example, that could be a good indication that they are going to continue with a level of absence because they may have a more serious underlying condition.

The next thing to consider is the impact that the absence has on the business. If you have reached a stage where you are considering dismissing an employee, you will need to be able to demonstrate why the company cannot cope with that level of absence anymore and what the impact is of this person not being there.

A tribunal will want to understand, for example, is there an expense being incurred or is there a disruption to the level of service the company would usually provide? Being able to demonstrate these things will strengthen an employer’s decision to dismiss as they can demonstrate that it was really not possible to wait any longer.

When to seek medical advice when managing employee sickness absence

The final key point to handling frequent short-term and long-term employee sickness absence is that employers should carry out a reasonable investigation to establish the medical position and health and wellbeing of their employee. It’s important to have medical evidence about when the employee is likely to return, or when their current pattern of absence will come to an end.

This could either be from a GP or occupational health. This allows employers to make an informed decision about next steps regarding managing employee sickness absence. Moreover, a tribunal will want to understand the employer’s willingness to facilitate a return to work. You can ask occupational health professionals if there are any adjustments that could help the employee return to work.

When considering disability discrimination, the majority of long-term chronic health conditions will amount to a disability within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010. Someone doesn’t necessarily need to have been absent for a certain length of time before they are classed as having a disability.

Employers will therefore need to bear in mind the duty to make reasonable adjustments where an employee is considered to have a disability. Reasonable adjustments could include a change in hours, redeployment or alterations to sick pay. The focus should be on considering whether or not you can make adjustments that could support a return to work in some capacity.

Managing employee sickness absence: Important takeaways

Managing employee sickness absence can be a difficult balance. As employers, we must ensure that it’s handled correctly to treat employees fairly and consistently and protect the business from potential claims relating to disability. To sum up, here are our main tips.

1. Draft a bespoke attendance management procedure

An attendance management procedure needs to be right for your business, and is the backbone of well managed attendance.

2. Ensure your employees understand how you will manage sickness absence

Following an attendance management procedure helps you to remain fair and consistent. It’s important your employees are aware of the procedure so ensure it is included in your employee handbook or shared on your intranet.

When you begin monitoring an employee’s attendance in line with the procedure, issue the employee with a copy of the procedure. This helps both the manager and the employee remain clear on the expectations around attendance, and trigger points. Revisit the procedure as you progress to each stage.

3. Support managers to manage employee sickness absence

Discussing poor attendance is just one of the difficult conversations managers are often faced with.

You may find that your managers could benefit from line manager training, to ensure they feel prepared to approach these situations correctly and have confidence in managing employee sickness absence.

• How to give employee feedback
  

4. Get medical advice

Gaining medical advice is the only way you can make an informed decision about an employee’s sickness absence. This will allow you to consider any reasonable adjustments appropriately. This is especially important in sickness absence cases if there is a disability contributing to absence.

5. Outsource

Managing absences effectively can be extremely time-consuming. Being a manager of people is made up of lots of elements, let alone doing the job you’re actually employed to do! Don’t be afraid to outsource the bits you can. After all, this will free up time to focus on the bits that will get your business targets over the line.

Use an absence management service like ours to take it off your plate.

How we can help

We hope you found this guide on managing employee sickness absence useful. Get in touch with our team to find out how we could support you in addressing absence issues in your organisation.

Frequently asked questions about managing employee sickness absence