Do you have an absence management policy?

Bad news: sometimes your staff are going to be off sick.

But fear not!

At the end of this guide, you'll know all you need to know about creating an absence management policy.

The way you handle absence and sickness can have a big impact on what your staff think about you.

Absence is inevitable, but to make matters worse, it has many different forms:

• Short-term sickness, lasting less than one week.
• Multiple short-term sickness absences, which might follow a pattern.
• Long-term sickness absence that lasts for several weeks.

These absences come with costs. Absence can lead to lost revenue. And sometimes, you'll even need to pay recruitment and wage fees for a temp.

It can mean that another employee has to take on more work, making them prone to stress and exhaustion. Even your most durable staff, who never seem to miss a day, could feel the pressure if they're having to cover for colleagues frequently. This can breed a culture of resentment, low morale, low productivity and lost revenue.

It can also mean delayed projects, and in turn, unhappy clients.

But most absences are genuine, so how do you manage them without making your employees feel bad about themselves? Which could then lead to them looking elsewhere for employment.

To sum up, absence can be a catalyst for all sorts of problems if you're not ready for it. So here's how you can get ready.

The absence management process

1) Create or revise your policy for absence or sickness management

You want your absence management policy to be available to all of your staff. So, one easy place to put it is in the staff handbook. Everyone should get a copy when they join the company.

If you update the policy, or any policy for that matter, always email staff the revised version of the handbook. Let them know what changes you've made, too. Transparency helps you set the tone for the open and honest sharing of information with your staff.

Your sickness management policy should answer the following questions for your staff when they're off sick:

• Who should they contact?
• Should they make contact via phone or email?
• Do they need a doctor's note or certificate to verify their absence? Note that in some situations, confidentiality might prevent this.

If you offer contractual sick pay, your policy should clarify how many days off someone is eligible for. If this number changes once an employee passes their probation, be sure to make this clear.

Aside from contractual sick pay, employees in Australia are entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave annually under the National Employment Standards (NES), which accrues over time.

Make sure that senior staff and management know what to do when someone is absent:

• Who records the absence?
• Who reports absence statistics after a month, quarter, year?
• Who enforces your absence management policy?
• Who sets each employee's absence trigger points?
• Who will lead meetings when someone's absence is too high?

Set realistic trigger points for absence. You could decide them using the average absence across the board for a single year. Set out the number of days that will trigger the disciplinary process, starting with an informal chat.

And think about how you can reward staff who achieve 100% attendance. One easy way is to add a day's annual leave for every year they're not off sick, up to a limit of five days.

2) Promote a culture of wellbeing

Encourage openness in your office. Have an open door policy and make sure all of your staff know they can come to you if they need to speak to you about something. They might want to let you know about an upcoming appointment or an emergency at home.

If, for whatever reason, this is impractical, such as if you have multiple offices, make sure your staff know who they can speak to when they have concerns.

Expect your staff to work hard during their work hours only.

Bravado and last-person-standing cultures in a workplace aren't positive. Once it's home time, your staff deserve to leave on time and not be made to feel guilty if others don't choose to do the same.

Recognising someone's willingness to stay after finishing time to try to convince others to do the same is more likely to breed resentment than a larger work ethic.

If an employee asks to work overtime, or is worried that their workload is overwhelming them, you should have an open and understanding conversation with them and try to agree on how to proceed.

When it comes to emails, make it clear that you don't expect your staff to check their emails once every hour or at the weekends. Encouraging a work life balance and acknowledging that they, like you, have a life outside of the office will gain you respect as an employer.

3) Be ready to make adjustments

Sometimes, when someone returns to work after a lengthy absence, it's with a new condition or disability. To comply with the Federal WHS Framework (Work Health and Safety Act 2011) employers must do a full risk assessment of the workplace for the returning employee, and give them any equipment or access that they'll need to do their job.

4) Return to work interviews

In your policy, let staff know that you'll conduct a return to work interview each time they return to work.

You should treat these interviews as chances to offer empathy and support to your employees. Not as a chance to interrogate them. The more care you show and the more you try to help your staff, the more they'll appreciate you.

Wellbeing benefits for your staff

As part of your absence management best practice, you should think about offering some "wellbeing benefits" to your staff.

A few ideas:

• Subsidised (doesn't need to be fully) gym memberships
• Give advice about healthy eating
• Provide health screening
• Run team events outside of work to build morale
• Secure bicycle parking

Employee assistance programmes (EAP)

Investing in an EAP will give your staff access to trained counsellors and other experts who can offer advice on matters that can reduce morale and work output, such as stress, depression, financial problems, colleague relationships, and more.

Frequently asked questions about an absence management policy

Our clients ask a lot of questions about an absence management policy. We’ve answered some of the most common ones below.

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What is absence management?

Absence management refers to an employer’s role in managing employees to return to work, as quickly as possible. The role will be to manage policies, programmes, reduce disruption and increase efficiency.

It should support the wellbeing of its employees and provide clear guidance to avoid absences and the misuse of sick pay schemes.