They’re the words that bring both joy and sadness to an employer’s ears: “I’m pregnant!” The happiness felt on behalf of the employee can quickly be overshadowed by the dread of having to arrange cover, potentially train new staff, pay out for two lots of salary, and maybe even deal with increased absence before the…

The Agenda for Change system is currently going through a major overhaul, and as it implements pay increases, in order to remain attractive to the healthcare workforce, it’s also trying to find ways to save money by only giving incremental increases to those staff members who perform to an acceptable standard. Up until now, staff…

In this blog I aim to unravel some of the myths surrounding flexible working requests. 1) You can only apply for flexible working if you have kids Not true anymore! In 2014 the law concerning who can make a flexible working request was changed, so that it no longer only applies to parents with children…

In this final absence-related blog, I’m going to look at making the most of Occupational Health referrals and implementing reasonable adjustments. Occupational Health Sometimes it might seem that Occupational Health is a pointless and expensive exercise. But an Occupational Health report is only as good as the referral you make. The purpose of Occupational Health…

This episode follows on from ‘Managing persistent short-term absences’ and will focus on managing staff on long-term sickness leave. First of all, what constitutes a “long-term” absence? Four weeks. It’s that simple. Any absence lasting four or more calendar weeks is deemed to be “long-term”. Why is managing long-term absence any different?  Essentially, it doesn’t…

We’ve all been there. Everything’s going swimmingly and then a member of staff goes off sick. Work needs reallocating, cover needs arranging, you have a situation to manage. How long will they be off? How many times has this employee been off so far If the answer to the first question is “more than a…