Long term sick absence management plan

Long term sick absence management plan

Step 1: Hold a formal stage 1 absence meeting

If your employee has been off for more than 4 weeks and there are no plans for an imminent return, you should invite them to a formal stage 1 absence meeting. Try to be flexible by offering to hold the meeting at their home and with a family member present or in a neutral location with a work colleague/friend if they wish. As this is a formal meeting, appropriate notice should be given to the employee and they should be offered the right to be accompanied. In this meeting you should:

• Try to gain an understanding of the condition and how it impacts the employee’s ability to work.

• Discuss what reasonable adjustments can be made to remove barriers to returning to work.

Step 2: Take notes during the meeting

As with all formal employment meetings, notes should be taken at the meeting and the discussion. This is essential evidence should you need to prove that you have followed a fair process.

Step 3: Follow up in writing

Keep a copy of the notes for your records and send a copy to the employee.

Step 4: Document the business impact of the employee’s absence

Create a written record of the impact the employee’s continued absence is having on your business both financially, and with regards to other members of staff. For example, you might now have to pay for additional resource or there is insufficient absence cover.

Step 5: Consult with health care professionals

Try to obtain consent from the individual to gather further medical information from the employee’s GP or an occupational health provider to help you assess how long the absence could last and any adjustments you might be able to make to support the employee’s eventual return to work

Step 7: Hold a stage 2 absence meeting

If the employee remains off work for a further month, consider a second formal meeting. This should follow the same format as a stage 1 meeting, only you should now have additional information, and can review any actions taken following the stage 1 meeting. You can continue to hold these formal sickness absence meetings for the duration of the absence to keep updated on the employee’s progress until they return.

Step 8: Hold a final formal meeting

If the employee is still absent, and the medical information still doesn’t provide an imminent return to work date, then you can consider inviting the employee to a final meeting at which you consider whether or not to terminate employment on health grounds.