Julie Sykes of HR consultancy JCS HR explains the best way to manage long-term absence in your organisation.

1. advisory article
How to manage long-term absence
Advisory article from JCS HR
Did you know that, according to the CIPD, the average cost of sickness is
£600 per employee (£889 in public sector), that’s nearly £17 billion pa to the
UK economy? Here specialist consultant Julie Sykes of Huddersfield-based
JCS HR explains how you can manage long-term absence to reduce the
impact on your business.
“With the average number of days of sickness absence per person being
nearly 8 (nearly 10 in the public sector), long term or frequent absence can
potentially create problems for any business or organisation – and like any
problem it needs to be managed.
In addition to the problems created by the absence itself, employees continue to earn holiday
entitlement whilst off sick, and that in itself, can be costly and problematic.
A common misconception amongst a large number of both employers and employees is that if absence
is covered by a medical certificate there is nothing that the employer can do. This is NOT true! Even when
absent due to sickness, an employee is still an employee, and should continue to be managed as such.
Once it becomes clear that an employee is going to be absent for some time, or that someone has a
recurring absence problem, steps should be taken to actively manage the situation. This is always much
easier to do if the employment contract and company policies and procedures detail how these
situations will be managed, and what the employee’s obligations are. So the starting point is to make
sure that these things are in place.
The aim of managing absence should be to get the employee back to work in the shortest time possible.
This requires regular communication with the employee, seeking medical advice, and also possibly
making some temporary (or even permanent) changes to help them back to work. If a return to work
isn’t going to be possible, the end result may have to be dismissal on the grounds of ill health.
For media information please contact Jenny Clayton @ Smart Arts on
07545 696713 / 01484 685544 or
email jenny@smartarts.co.uk

2. One of the limited, potentially fair reasons, for dismissal is capability, and if an employee is incapable of
performing their job due to health reasons, they can be dismissed. As with any dismissal it will only be
deemed to be fair if the employer has followed a fair process – this obviously needs to be handled well,
following some key steps in order to be fair to the employee, but also to make sure that the company’s
position is secure if challenged.”
For more information on JCS HR visit http://www.jcs-hr.co.uk or call 01484 602708. You can also follow
Julie at http://www.twitter.com/@HRJulie.
-ends-
Notes to editors:
• Julie Sykes has worked in the human resources industry for 25 years and celebrated 10 years
running her own consultancy in 2012.
• JCS HR Consulting is based in Huddersfield and services Yorkshire and Manchester areas.
• JCS HR provides consultancy across all sectors including manufacturing, government, media,
financial services, medical and engineering.
• JCS HR has provided consultancy for groups of up to 1000 people.
For media information please contact Jenny Clayton @ Smart Arts on
07545 696713 / 01484 685544 or
email jenny@smartarts.co.uk