A manager has an employee who has had eleven separate short absences in a year. He has said nothing each time, is now thoroughly fed up, and wants to know how to remove them.
Nothing has been recorded, no return to work conversation has happened, nothing has been raised with the employee, and one of the absences related to a condition that may be relevant. He is further from a solution than he thinks.
1. Start with recording, not action
Dates, reasons given and duration. Employers who cannot produce a pattern cannot act on one, and most have the information scattered across memory and messages.
2. Hold return to work conversations every time
Short, routine and after every absence. It catches problems early, it signals that absence is noticed, and it is the most effective intervention available.
3. Separate short frequent absence from long term absence
Entirely different situations requiring different processes. Employers frequently apply the wrong one.
4. Establish whether a condition is involved
This changes the obligations substantially, and an employer acting without knowing is exposed. Asking is not intrusive, it is necessary.
5. Consider adjustments properly
Where a condition is relevant, adjustments must be considered genuinely rather than dismissed. This is where most absence dismissals fail.
6. Get medical evidence when it matters
An occupational health report or a medical opinion, obtained properly with consent. Acting on an assumption about somebody's health is a serious risk.
7. Use a trigger point consistently
A stated number of absences or days prompting a formal conversation. Applied to everybody, it is fair and defensible, and applied selectively it is not.
8. Keep the formal process genuinely supportive first
Concerns raised, support offered, improvement discussed. This both helps and creates the record that any later decision depends on.
9. Be careful with pregnancy related absence
It is treated differently and must be recorded separately, which employers frequently do not know.
10. Handle mental health absence with particular care
It may amount to a condition attracting protection, and the process needs to account for that from the first conversation.
11. Check the sick pay position
Statutory and contractual entitlements, when they run out and what happens next. Employees ask and managers frequently do not know.
12. Maintain contact during long term absence
Regular, proportionate and agreed. Silence for months is unhelpful, and excessive contact is its own problem.
13. Plan the return rather than assuming it
Phased returns, adjusted duties and a review point. A return that fails because nothing was planned puts everybody back to the start.
14. Keep the policy consistent with what you do
An absence policy nobody follows is worse than none, which connects to the documents in first employee and growing team enquiries.
15. Expect these enquiries urgently
Employers contact an adviser when patience runs out, which is the situation in HR help enquiries from small employers with a problem today.
16. Capture the facts before anybody acts
An assistant that asks how many absences, over what period, what was recorded, whether any condition is involved and what has been said to the employee produces a picture an adviser can work from. If you are weighing what to hand over, an AI assistant versus a chatbot versus an AI employee covers the choice, and the same long duration handling appears in extended stay and long term rate enquiries. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under consultants.