Everyone at work will probably need to take sick leave at some time during their working lives and in most cases this lasts only a few days. But, if it turns into long-term sickness absence, it can have devastating effects on the productivity and competitiveness of your business and the health and well-being of your employees
Key issues
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Sickness absence is not just a matter of ill-health. It is affected by a combination of the health condition, personal and work factors.
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Early intervention is key.
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Work in a well-managed workplace is a treatment for people recovering from sickness and an early return to work improves both mental and physical recovery. Simple adjustments can enable workers to return to work safely before symptoms completely disappear.
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The journey from someone going on long term sick leave to leaving paid employment altogether is not inevitable and you and your managers can take action to prevent losing your employees through poor health.
For an overview of the process HSE recommends to manage sickness absence please see Steps to managing sickness absence and return to work. This chart shows the steps your business can take in partnership with your employees, to manage sickness absence and help your sick employees return to work. It also gives a general time frame for the process.
This section contains:
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Getting started
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Information on Six Steps to managing sickness absence and return to work
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Guidance on relevant legal issues
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Downloads section
Next: How to get started
Free online absence management toolkit
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), working with HSE and Acas, have launched a free online toolkit to help managers with absence management.
Talking leaflets
These files are provided in mp3 format,
INDG173 Officewise
Health & safety law: What you should know
INDG226 Homeworking
INDG163 Five steps to risk assessment
INDG225 Preventing slips and trips at work
Who is the toolkit for?
It is aimed principally at line managers working in small and medium sized enterprises, but will also be of interest to those working in larger organisations
Why is this important?
Research shows that where line managers have training in absence management, there is a decrease in sickness absence rates. However, many small and medium sized enterprises provide very little or no training to line managers and therefore fail to get the benefits of effective absence management.
What does the toolkit do?
This toolkit provides a wealth of information on absence management practices and procedures that line managers can pick and choose information from. It is split into four parts to help managers:
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Identify an absence problem
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Develop an absence strategy
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Deal with short-term absence
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Deal with long-term absence
Where to find it?
You can access the toolkit on the CIPD website.
You can access each part separately or work through all the parts as a whole.
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