"Too many sickies" leads to stronger absence and attendance management.

ONS Survey
The recently published article from the Office of National Statistics indicating that public sector workers are a "third more likely to take a day off sick", rejuvenates the call for management teams to review their absence policies.

Up to date absence policy?
When we have advised Companies it is surprising how out of date or non existent their policies are. More importantly, when the chips are down, and management teams investigate their practices, it is surprising just how little absence management is being done at all.

Do we follow our own procedure?
How many of us have delayed or not bothered to carry out a "return to work" interview? Do we ever question whether the employee has been to see a GP and have we ensured that we make it very clear that the employee must advise immediately if the GP has ticked the "may be fit for work" box on his/her medical certificate. After all, unless you insist, the employee may not wish to return to work and adjust to his Doctor's recommendation even if you do!

The first call-in
How many of us allow staff to call in sick to the receptionist or the boss's secretary? Sick employees are very adept at finding out just when Managers are unavailable so that they can avoid ringing direct and therebye avoid having to answer any tricky questions.

New case law on holidays and sickness
There has been some important new case law on long term sick employees taking their holiday either during or after their illness. You may need help in this area to incorporate these issues within your policy.

Frequent/ intermittent sickness
These absence periods are the easiest to manage and generally do not incur the problem of disability discrimination claims. You may wish to use a points scoring trigger mechanism or the "Bradford factor" scheme where more frequent illnesses of the same total absence will be treated more seriously than one period of the same time off. In either case, you will need to investigate thoroughly and then decide the appropriate action having due regard to consistency, potential discrimination claims (very expensive for the business if dealt with incorrectly) and any medical feedback.

Huge savings to be made
There are significant potential savings to be made in just small reductions in sickness absence. Additonally the rest of the workforce will be thanking you for arresting the decline in attendance standards, which the well attending employee hates with a passion. The more consistent you are in the way you manage this area of HR and employment law, the less criticism of unfairness will be heard. Tell me you have not heard these moans from your workforce and I will take you off my list of clients needing advice to place their bottom line in greater shape! You would be hard pressed to find new sales of the magnitude of these cost savings. However if this is successful you should have a larger, fitter workforce that is now able to turn out increased product and/or services and so there you have your "double whammy".

Please contact me at Strategic HR Support Ltd if you need further help. We have many examples of success in this area of HR Support.