Understanding Absence Management in Occupational Health in the UK 

The UK economy forks out more than £100 billion per year due to ill health. Accordingly, your employee’s absence due to poor health can burden your business in terms of time and cost. On average, you lose 7.4 working days each year for each employee due to ill health resulting in sickness absence, which costs you £692 annually. When your employees are absent from work for their health, this can result in lower productivity and rising stress levels amongst your staff. Therefore, it is essential that, as an employer, you effectively manage absence at work with your workforce. You can do this through occupational health. This article will explain what you need to know about absence management in occupational health services. It will explain how this may help your business regarding health-related absences by looking at what it can do and why you might use it.

What is Occupational Health?

Occupational health is a service that can protect both you and your employees. It allows you to deal with your employees’ health affecting their work. Occupational health staff can provide a consultancy service for your employees’ illness and rehabilitation. This can be beneficial as your employee’s health can be sensitive and, at times, complex for you as an employer to manage. For example, occupational health services can provide you with data about your employees to make informed decisions. 

What is Sickness Absence?

Sickness absence is when your employee is away from work due to being unwell. It can be short-term or long-term. Each type of sickness absence can have different effects on your business. 

Long-term sickness absence may mean that:

• your employee is absent from work for four weeks or longer;
• there is more time away from the workplace for your employee;
• you have notice of the sickness so can plan for another person to cover their workload; and 
• your employee has to see a doctor to get a Fit Note.

Short-term sickness may mean that:

• there is less time away from the workplace for your employee;
• you are not aware of the sickness absence in advance, so may not be able to find someone to cover their work; and
• your employees are often self-diagnosing their health issues.

Due to the differences in long-term and short-term sickness absence, occupational health services will deal with the two situations in distinctly different manners. For example, short-term sickness absence management looks at the reason for absence. Alternatively, for long-term sickness absence management, they will try to find ways to help your employee return to work.

Sending Your Employee for Occupational Health Management

If you choose occupational health for an employee’s absence management, you should explain to them why you are suggesting this and what you wish to gain from it. You may find that letting your employee know about this resolves the issue without needing to send them to health management. For example, it may encourage them to explain their health issues or correct misunderstandings.

Absence management in occupational health for short-term sickness absences can help measure and monitor your employees’ absences. It can establish:

• if your employee has an underlying health condition that affects how often they attend work; 
• how to deal with any health issue your employee has;
• wellbeing activities which may help to motivate the employee and improve their health;
• the need for medical health assessments;
• whether your employee is absent due to work issues such as stress or bullying; and 
• whether your employee is absent from work due to home issues such as marital issues or problems with their children.

Absence management in occupational health for long-term sickness absence means you gain help managing your employee’s long-term sickness leave. It can help to establish how your employee can return to work by:

• suggesting rehabilitation programmes;
• advice on reasonable adjustments you should make for your employees;
• allowing your employee to regularly visit the workplace before returning to work;
• giving your employee reduced hours;
• suggesting your employee works from home; or
• changing your employee’s job temporarily.

Why Use Occupational Health?

You may use occupational health for absence management to deal with the issue. Those working in occupational health are likely to be in a better place than you to deal with your employees’ absence from work. 

Once absence management establishes the reason for your employee’s sickness absence and resolves it, this can mean that:

• if your employee continues short-term sickness absence, you may decide to carry out formal disciplinary procedures;
• your employee on long-term sickness can return to work as you carry out actions to assist in this; and
• you can plan for absence where absence management for occupational health reveals a further period of sickness absence.

Key Takeaways

When your staff are absent from work due to sickness, your business loses out, such as in terms of productivity. It is, therefore, essential to managing sickness absence effectively. An employer cannot always do this. Consequently, occupational health services can greatly assist your business by managing this for you. It can help you understand why your staff are absent and what to implement to help them return to the workplace. Your staff may be absent on either short-term or long-term sickness absence, and absence management in occupational health deals with each differently to reach an effective outcome. 

If you need help understanding absence management in occupational health in the UK, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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