Here are another couple of questions that were raised in our recent webinar on Managing Sickness Absence, plus our outline answers.

If an employee always uses their full sickness allowance but never goes over this, can we still have meetings and issue warnings, even if there is no evidence of an underlying medical condition?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, this is exactly the situation where you should be actively addressing and managing their attendance.

Ideally, your sickness procedure should include “triggers” that prompt a review (and usually a warning) after a certain number of absences. This should be the case even if (and in fact, especially if) the employee does not have any underlying medical condition, e.g. the reasons for the absences are different and totally unrelated. Remember, the purpose of the warnings is not to “discipline” the employee, but to ensure they are aware of the standards of attendance that are expected and to support them in meeting them.

A few additional points to consider. Do you currently carry out return to work meetings after an employee has taken a period of absence? Studies have shown that conducting return to work meetings after every period of sickness absence can be a powerful tool in managing short-term absence. This is because employees are much less likely to “throw a sickie” if they must then attend a meeting with their manager or a member of the HR team to explain the reasons for their absence. Such meetings also give employers the...

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