Sickness Absence – Policy and Procedure Tips to Manage Short Term Persistent Absences

When an employer is faced with an employee who has been off on long term sickness absence, they often feel more certain about how to manage this type of absence, and what stages they need to go through in order to do so. Long term absences will be supported by medical certificates and other medical or occupational health guidance will often be sought to consider prognosis, duty to make reasonable adjustments (if applicable under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995) and prospects of a return to work. 

But what about persistent short term sickness absence? These absences can be trickier to deal with because there is often no single causative factor for the absences. An employee may