Absence management policy - anyone help or share?

[Zoosie]

Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of a good absence management policy that could be tailored to our work (education)

Huge problem with casual absence, no HR specialist, so its very unclear what we should be doing. We are basically looking to create and distribute a policy that helps us to highlight and manage people who have Mondayitis whilst supporting and helping the genuinely sick, unable to work due valid reasons.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

You are an employer. Your problem. Get a lawyer. That is not remotely an unsympathetic answer. It means that if you employ people, you shouldn't be depending on anonymous websites for legal advice.

Lots of places use the bradford factor score. Speak to HR company or it could cost you more in tribunals

If you google you will be able to find examples which will give you a steer in the kind of things to include. Universities is probably. Good place to start.

However given the consequences of getting this wrong I agree with the PP that you should take specialist advice both on the policy and how to apply it.

Yep google is your friend. Public sector Organisations will have policies that are available to the public. Have a look at your local NHS trust website or your local city council website and search for their policies.

We have a policy where everyone fills in a form regardless of numbers of days off ( not counting over 7 days which needs a cert) with similar details to the self certification form online. It gets signed by the line manager then passed to HR. I would imagine they use the aforementioned scale to keep an eye on people then but as I'm not off much I don't know.

If it's education, use The Key for good examples. Local authorities are usually a good starting point though.

If you have no HR person and lots of HR issues to deal with, would your company consider taking out a subscription to XpertHR or another similar service? They have a whole load of template policies you can easily adapt as well as great resources like template letters, flow charts for processes like absence management and easy to understand guidance.

The price is quite reasonable compared to either getting a lawyer to review documents for you or certainly compared to getting it wrong and being taken to tribunal!

An HR policy subscription is not really a big cost, particularly as most of them provide cover for a tribunal.
Having someone take you through any kind of scenario step wise is very helpful as an employer.

Acas have a good guide here and resources you can order

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4199

Lots of really useful tips, thank you!

I would also stress consistency.

Once you start managing absence you will start getting regular requests to log it as annual leave or let people work back the time.

As much as you would like to help people, if you do it for one you have to do it for all or you end up with favouritism claims, or someone taking regular duvet days that end up logged as annual leave even though it wasnt convenient for the business, left colleagues picking up work with no handover and left you in the lurch.

Make sure you have mechanisms in place to support disabled employees, a link to an occ health provider, a supplier for accessibility aids etc

Make sure return to work intwrviews are completed in a timely manner, ideally on the first day of return and act on what you are told. If someone has had time off for stress and they say or you identify that the stressor or a contributing factor is work related then put in plan to resolve it. That may be suggesting that the employee approaches their GP, a occupational counselling service, or it may be arranging mediation with a colleague, adjusting work load etc.

How do you staff report in sick - email ? Phone message ? Perhaps a change in reporting policy that to report sick they have to call the Head or a deputy head and speak direct?

A close friend was a Governor at a school who did this and their one day sickness rapidly reduced.