As the weather heats up and final restrictions lift, sickness and absence levels are likely to be brought into sharp focus. The summer months can often bring about a wave of short-term absences, but this year the long-term effects of the pandemic on employee wellbeing combined with a busy calendar of summer events (full reopening of hospitality, Olympics and football tournaments to name a few) could spark absence levels to soar.
From repeat sickies to more complex long-term absences, we’ll be exploring the processes, policies and procedures you need to follow to fairly manage employees and protect your organisation from costly claims. We’ll also recap how to deal with COVID-19 related absences and holiday requests.
The time spent dealing with short and long-term absences can incur significant costs for organisations, both in terms of management time and the ripple effect on the rest of your workforce who are left to pick up the slack.
Having an effective absence management framework enables people leaders to understand the correct process, be mindful of the legal position, and support the health of employees through providing clear and consistent guidance. By following a robust series of interventions alongside absence policies, organisations will be better placed to identify underlying issues before they spiral out of control, put a stop to unauthorised absences, and promote a positive attendance culture.
However, some types of absence can be particularly tricky to deal with. For example, absences due to stress or a pregnancy-related illness need to be handled with care. Keeping in touch with absent employees and setting out a clear return-to-work strategy are just some of the ways you can support employees to transition back into the workplace.
To help organisations prepare for a potential spike in absences, keep them under control, and confront more complex long-term cases confidently, we are hosting a free live webinar, Strengthening Your Sickness and Absence Framework, where we will discuss these issues in more detail.
Join our Employment Law Head of Team, Alexandra Farmer, for practical advice and guidance on:
Have a specific query? Submit your questions to our experts in advance via the registration form so that we can answer them live during the session.
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