Sickness Matters

A new week for me usually means starting by catching up on what I didn't do last week.

Ask yourself this though. What hasn't happened in your business this week because people have been off sick? or are we all tied up because we are all too busy doing stuff that should have been done by our absent colleagues.

Now, some sick time is fine, and of course we are humans, we get ill. But I am often in conversations with clients who are talking to me about employees who have been off a month, 10 weeks, and in one recent case 4 months! Usually in that conversation the client will say 'But there's nothing I can do about it is there'.

There are LOTS of things you can do about it. Firstly lets look at the economics - Sick leave cost the UK nearly £554 per employee last year. Then think about the effect on other staff, lost productivity and how its also eroding your company culture.

My message today - are you sick of people having a lot of time off sick? Yes? Then its time to do something about it. This isn't about having a work place culture similar to the victorian workhouses, BUT, it is about having a positive and proactive approach around what you are doing with people who have too much sick leave.

So, what is too much? I am often asked this. Standard absence rate in the UK at the moment is 5 days (or the part time equivalent). As a percentage thats about 2% of time. So really anything more is too much. HOWEVER, the world is not really as easy as being able to set an easy metric for people being off ill. People get sick, seriously sick, and we have to make sure we are taking this into account and make reasonable considerations for that.....that is not the same as letting it go and doing nothing. As a HR professional, having conversations with employees who are off long term sick with nasty illnesses is sadly part of the job, they are never nice conversations to have, however they are productive and proactive. Its also far better than not managing it at all.

We can help you. Do you have people off sick who have been off for ages, whats your plan, what are you doing to aid their return......or are you simply paying out sick pay, and covering them and not blinking an eye at it. Call us !