In the three months from August 2022, UK searches soared:

• ‘Best excuse to call off work’ – 600% 3-month search increase
• ‘Good excuses to call off from work’ – 140% 3-month search increase

Along with adding strain to workloads, unexpected absences can be especially costly for small businesses, so knowing how to manage this effectively can be particularly useful during economic turbulence. With sickies on the rise, Kirstin Newman, Head of Advice and Occupational Health Services at Bupa UK, shares her advice for business owners.

Last year, the Office for National Statistics estimated almost one hundred and fifty million days were lost because of sickness or injury in the UK. While employees need to take time off if they’re unwell, don’t forget that employees arriving at work without working productively (presenteeism) can be detrimental to your business, too.

As a business owner, supporting your employees when unwell is key to protecting them and your business. Though you can’t control all factors contributing to an employee taking a sick day, you can implement helpful initiatives to help save your company wasted time and money. It can also be useful to consider the root causes of persistent absenteeism on an individual basis and organisationally.  

Make policies clear, front and centre

Firstly, ensure that you have clear policies to manage absences effectively, including triggers for when formal action may need to be taken. Next, consider how your employees can access those policies – are they readily available on a shared document or intranet, for example?

Including information on sick pay, the absence management process, return to work interviews, the requirements for reporting an absence, and the support available for employees in one place is advisable. This will help you manage absences consistently and in a supportive manner. Reminding your employees of these policies throughout the year can be helpful as a refresher and for new starters.

Awareness of these policies may help employees to think twice about making excuses not to work that day and may even encourage them to seek any support they need.

Are you providing enough flexibility?

Many companies have harnessed the power of flexible working, with technology enabling many roles to be carried out well from home. What’s more, research shows that flexible working increases productivity and reduces absenteeism.

For employees, flexible working is also seen as an important way to improve wellbeing and may help to reduce the need to pull a last-minute sickie. Flexible working means that there’s more freedom to set their own routine and be at home whilst working if they need to be – for example, for childcare reasons, to have work carried out at their home, or to run simple errands.   

Be sensitive

Some employees may feel uncomfortable about sharing why they need to take time off, which is why they take time off at the last minute. Remember, absences can happen for many reasons, including relationship troubles, personal problems, poor mental health and workplace concerns.

Absences rooted in emotional or mental health hardships can be difficult to address for you and your employee, and you shouldn’t expect to handle them alone. Speaking to an HR professional for advice on individual circumstances and offering an employee assistance programme is a really supportive measure for both employees’ and managers’ mental health.

To help reduce the chance of an employee feeling they must lie about their reason for being absent, encourage transparency within your team to reinforce that mental health is just as important as physical health. And very importantly, listen.

Educate your team on good mental health

Encouraging your team to be transparent about stress and mental health starts with education. As a business owner, you can start company-wide initiatives to support your employees and ensure your company is prepared to support all employees to address and reduce absences – whether they’re caused by mental health problems, or issues in the workplace.

Create a mental health at work plan to show your team how your business plans to promote good mental health and what resources they can turn to if they need it. Like your absence policies, make sure that this plan is communicated and accessible to all employees.

Follow this up with mental health training across your company to help your workforce raise awareness on what could harm their wellbeing, at work and home.

Encourage a healthy work-life balance  

From reiterating the importance of logging off and switching off to helping your staff take effective annual leave throughout the year, business owners have a big part to play in setting healthy boundaries between work and recreation.

Long working hours are associated with symptoms of depression, so reinforcing the need to take proper breaks – both in work time and booking staggered annual leave throughout the year - is a meaningful important way to show your team that you care for their wellbeing.

Be supportive, but firm

If you have all the above means in place to manage absences effectively, but you still have a member of your team who’s frequently absent, it’s time to discuss what you expect and the consequences of unacceptable absences. Always follow the policy steps and ensure effective return to work interviews happen consistently across your business.

Though there are no legal stipulations on how much time an employee can take off, it’s your discretion to decide how to handle an individual’s absences based on your published policy. When absence is putting a strain on your business, you can take action in line with your policy which will either reduce the absenteeism or enable you to make decisions about an individual’s ongoing employment. However, it’s always recommended you take advice from an HR professional.