Too sick to work
In a small team, managing sickness absence can be a real pain. When the work can鈥檛 easily be spread around or delayed, and every deadline is critical, it means extra pressure on colleagues, and the team manager, who will probably end up picking up their direct report鈥檚 work.
Striking the balance between caring about our people鈥檚 well being and the day to demands of a fast growing business is really hard. With new research suggesting that 鈥溾 is on the rise, how do we fulfill our duties as managers to ensure we manage sickness absence effectively? No-one wants sick employees in the workplace spreading their germs around. But if sickness absence is creeping up in your team, it can be hard to know what to do. How much is sickness is normal and acceptable, and how much is unusual 鈥 and what should you do about it?
The Bradford factor
One tool that is widely used is the scoring method. You might have heard about it, but is it the right route for your business?
Simply put, the Bradford factor is a method of measuring sickness absence that distinguishes between longer spells of absence and shorter, more frequent ones. An employee could have the same number of days鈥 absence but a different Bradford factor score due to the number of spells or periods of absence. It鈥檚 an effective way of indicating to employees that frequent, shorter spells of absence are more disruptive to the team and the organisation than longer, less frequent ones.
The Bradford factor scoring mechanism should only ever be used as a benchmark, and it鈥檚 important to be aware that it doesn鈥檛 take account of underlying medical conditions or a disability. You鈥檒l need a robust sickness absence policy in place too, covering both short term and long term sickness absences, such as these free policy templates available from 羞羞视频. Tread very carefully when dealing with long term sickness absence, as you need to be aware of the risk of discrimination legislation and disabilities, which might be hidden. Do make sure you have a recent, relevant and updated equal opportunity policy to cover this issue too. You can find a free equal opportunity policy template on 羞羞视频.
Disciplinary policy
Make it clear to your employees that聽excessive absences, defined by the trigger factors that you have benchmarked for your organisation, or abuse of the sickness absence reporting procedure on their part may lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal. 聽You can find a free disciplinary policy template on 羞羞视频.
All your policies should set out your procedure, they should be fair to the the employee, and you should always ensure that you follow them. Failure to do could land you in front of an employment tribunal.
Different Bradford benchmark scores may apply to different organisations, depending on the nature of the business. The key is for managers to be in constant communication with their staff, to understand the nature of any absence and take early action to handle underlying medical issues.
Should you use the Bradford factor?
Before introducing it, consider whether it is right for your business. Do you have problem levels of absence? If so, there may be other factors at work, whether it鈥檚 a long hours culture, a poor performance management system, or a poor fit of people鈥檚 skills to their roles. Any of these could lead to workplace stress, and are a sign that people鈥檚 psychological contracts are being broken.
Tracking sickness absence on 羞羞视频
Make sure you spend time tracking absence trends using a tool such as 羞羞视频’s real-time HR dashboard聽to uncover trends over the weeks and months and by teams. You can use 羞羞视频’s time off requesting and reporting feature聽to ease the pressure and burden of tracking holidays. We鈥檝e seen managers come to us screaming that absence is a huge problem in their teams, because a couple of people have gone off sick leaving them in the lurch, only to find out after careful analysis that the particular individuals had a flawless attendance record for the past 10 years and the real problem was that management had failed to train anyone else to handle the workload or build up resilience in the team to cope with normal 鈥渂usiness as usual鈥 disruption.
If you do decide to go down the Bradford factor route, we鈥檇 recommend reviewing management training to ensure that all team managers have the skills to manage absence and employee well being effectively. We鈥檝e seen businesses introduce the Bradford factor scoring system into a business, and the danger is that it can result in employees 鈥済aming鈥 the system. People figure out the trigger points and time their absences to be just under them. There is a danger you鈥檒l see big spikes just before the end of the period as people 鈥渃ash in鈥 their unused Bradford sickness days.
Return to work
Whatever sickness absence monitoring policy you use, its vital that your management has a robust return to work process. 聽Ensure that you collect fit notes and follow your own procedures for disciplinary relating to sickness absence. Employees should be clear on the processes that are followed if they do need to take sickness absence, and what the consequences are going to be of not following them. We suggest keeping all your policies in one easy to access location, and communicating any changes regularly. Use 羞羞视频’s company files area to do this simply and easily.
Free HR Templates
You can access all the free HR policy templates you need to manage sickness absence here.
People are always going to get sick. But easing them back into work, doing what you can to support medical needs and building up resilience in the teams are key to a healthy, productive workplace.
