Employee sickness absence is often given little attention until it starts costing the business money. Absence is one of the most frequent reasons clients contact GAP HR. Sometimes it is a long absence with no clear end in sight; more often it is a short-term pattern that everyone in the business has noticed, and nobody has yet addressed. Helping owner-managers deal with both, firmly and fairly, has been part of our work since 2003.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry, and we will be delighted to help you manage your employee sickness absence issues.
What Should Your Absence Reporting Procedure Look Like?
Your employee sickness absence reporting procedure should be easy to understand and communicated to everyone in the business. Staff should understand who they must contact when they cannot come in, by what time, and by what means. A telephone call to a named person is preferable to a text message to a colleague, partly because a conversation allows you to ask how long the absence is likely to last and what needs covering, and partly because absence reported personally tends to be treated more seriously by everyone involved.
Self-certification covers the first seven calendar days; after that, a fit note is required. You should record every absence, however short, with dates and stated reasons. Patterns only become visible when they are written down.
How Do You Deal With Frequent Short-Term Absence?
Return-to-work conversations can be invaluable in dealing with frequent short-term absences. A brief, private discussion on the day someone returns, asking how they are and whether anything lies behind the absences can provide support where support is needed, and also signals that the absence has been noticed. Many recurring patterns end at this stage.
Where they do not, it can help to review the employee’s absence record. Repeated single days, absences clustering around weekends, or absences following refused holiday requests all justify a more formal conversation. Trigger points can provide useful structure, provided they are applied with judgement rather than mechanically. The aim is not to penalise genuine illness; it is to distinguish genuine illness from something else, and to be able to demonstrate that this was done fairly.
What Can You Do About Long-Term Absence?
When an employee is absent for a long time, it is important to maintain contact throughout. An employee who is absent for months and never hears from work feels forgotten at best and managed out at worst, and silence makes an eventual return more difficult. You should agree how often you will speak and keep to the arrangement.
Dismissal on capability grounds is lawful where an employee genuinely cannot return within a reasonable time, but it belongs at the end of a fair process rather than the beginning.
When Does Absence Involve Disability?
Whenever the underlying condition has a substantial, long-term effect on normal day-to-day activities, the Equality Act is engaged, which changes the position considerably. The duty to make reasonable adjustments arises, absence procedures may need adjusting, and disability-related absences counted rigidly towards trigger points can give rise to a discrimination claim, where compensation is uncapped.
An employer does not need a formal diagnosis for the duty to arise; if you ought reasonably to have known that the employee had a disability, that can suffice. If a long-term or recurring condition is even possibly involved, you should take advice before applying your standard procedure.
Does The Employment Rights Act 2025 Affect How You Manage Sickness Absence?
Yes, the changes brought about by the Employment Rights Act 2025 will affect how you manage sickness absence in a couple of ways.
Firstly, since April 2026, the Employment Rights Act has made SSP payable from the first day of absence for virtually all staff, which alters the economics of short-term sickness and makes the informal tools described above, particularly return-to-work conversations, more valuable than before.
Secondly, on 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months, and the caps on compensation are removed. At present, an employer can allow a problematic absence pattern to drift during an employee’s first two years without significant legal risk. From January, that leeway will be significantly reduced.
When Is Dismissing For Sickness Absence Fair?
Dismissing an employee for absence can be fair when the reason is genuine, the process was fair, and dismissal was a reasonable response. For long-term absence, that means obtaining up-to-date medical evidence, consulting with the employee, giving genuine consideration to adjustments and alternatives, and making a decision a reasonable employer could reach. For persistent short-term absence, you should give sufficient warnings, allow the employee a period of time within which to improve, and carry out reviews.
How Can GAP HR Help With Sickness Absence?
At GAP HR, we specialise in employment law and HR issues, including employee sickness absence. All initial enquiries are free of charge and carry no obligation.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry and we will be delighted to help you.
