Managing Sickness Absence | proven strategies to reduce disruption
Frequent, unplanned absences can put excessive strain on already stretched teams, while long-term absences – especially those related to stress and mental health – can be equally disruptive and even trickier to manage. So, how do you minimise these absences, maintain compliance, and make sure you’re supporting your employees?
In this live one-hour webinar, WorkNest’s legal and HR experts will guide you through four common absence scenarios. You’ll learn the correct processes to follow, when to involve Occupational Health, and how to fairly dismiss an employee if the situation doesn’t improve.
20 March, 2.00 pm - 3.00 pm
Hosts: Employment Law Adviser and Solicitor Chloe Kamutikaoma and Senior HR Consultant Allison Calvert
What to expect
Sickness is an inevitable part of life, and as an employer, supporting employees when they fall ill is essential. But what happens when absences become excessive, disruptive, or even questionable? Without proactive management, a poor workplace culture can develop and escalate over time.
Frequent short-term absences require one strategy, while stress, anxiety, and depression-related absences demand a completely different approach. According to the HSE, mental health-related absences lead to an average of 21 sick days per person – far exceeding the national average of 15.5 days for other illnesses or injuries. Whatever kind of absence you’re dealing with, taking the right steps in each case is crucial to reducing disruption and protecting your business.
In this session, we’ll explore effective policies and procedures for managing absence, highlight when to escalate matters, and ensure you handle situations compliantly to minimise the risk of an Employment Tribunal.
Key takeaways
- How to review and strengthen your sickness absence policies
- Best practices for managing short-term absences
- Handling sensitive or complex absence situations
- Understanding disability discrimination risks
- When to seek Occupational Health input
- The legal steps for medical capability dismissals
Got a question?
Submit it to our experts via the registration form. We’ll answer as many as we can at the end of the session.
Register for free webinar
Need more comprehensive training?
Our virtual, in-depth half-day course on Managing Sickness Absence gives people managers the skills to address issues effectively while managing their duty of care to employees. Delegates will understand how to apply best practice, taking into account the legal principles associated with managing absence.
Get tickets for our next online course on 14 May, 9:30 am – 13:00pm.
How can we help?
Get expert legal support tailored to your business
Need pragmatic support managing sickness absence? Our personalised, fixed-fee service gives you access to dedicated professionals who guide you every step of the way.
We’ll also handle any documentation you require, saving you time and ensuring it’s legally compliant.
Looking for more resources?
Access hundreds of free webinars, guides, and template documents to support your needs.
Whatever employment or safety challenge you’re tackling, our extensive library of downloadable resources has you covered.
Webinar review
“Having attended a few WorkNest webinars, I am always impressed with the no-nonsense, well-balanced guidance they provide. Their advice gives me confidence to deal with situations that may arise in an appropriate way and the fact that they follow up with answers to all the questions posed during the webinar is an added bonus.”
Mary Greig, Scaled Solutions
Better with WorkNest
Protecting organisations and achieving results
Owing to our unrivalled support and expertise, we’re consistently high achievers when it comes to protecting organisations and achieving results.
3x
More employment lawyers
Across our non-SRA and SRA entities, we have over three times as many qualified employment lawyers than any of our larger competitors, guaranteeing the best possible advice.
4x
Reduced claims risk
Our Employment Law clients are nearly four times less likely to face a Tribunal claim compared to the national average, and almost twice as likely to successfully defend one.
100%
Qualified consultants
All of our Health & Safety specialists are IOSH qualified (or equivalent), mainly Chartered or Graduate, ensuring they possess the skills and expertise to support you effectively.
1,500
Years of experience
Together, our experts have over 1,500 years’ collective experience of supporting organisations with their compliance, so you can be sure you’re in safe hands.
Who we work with
Proud to support over 40,000 UK employers
Our clients range from small businesses with fewer than 50 staff at a single location, through to large household names employing thousands of people at multiple sites across the UK. Whatever your size or sector, we have solutions to suit your needs.
