Short Term Absence Monitoring - General - HR in Schools and Academies

3 Short Term Absence Monitoring

19 Jun, 2018 09:59

Hi,

I work in a school in a standalone HR role and the school has a very strict leave of absence policy. This policy allows 3 medicals paid in a rolling year and any further medicals would be unpaid, this is very similar to compassionate care arrangements etc. Any absence is recorded, lateness, sick appointments, personal, funerals, annual leave used in term time etc. We also operate a trigger system and although the leave of absence policy states that triggers are for sickness, management will use appointments, funerals and annual leave alongside these triggers. So for example if a member of staff has two medical appointments in a month then this would trigger under '2 in 12 weeks.' On top of this we also use the bradford factor termly and all these appointments are included.

As a result staff are getting pulled in for their absences for medicals and being told they've had x amount, but these have all been approved by management and are allowed within the leave of absence policy. Staff are now coming to me in droves worried about their absence records and are not going for appointments which are allowed within the policy.

I find I am struggling to get my head around this and when I've spoken to members of management they say that this needs monitoring, but I find it it contradictory to staff to say 'you're allowed to go to this doctors appointment,' and then the next week telling them they have had too many appointments.

I just want to ensure that we're being fair to staff and not causing them unnecessary stress.

Thanks.

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Lisa | 0 Posts

22 Jun, 2018 21:18

Hi Rebecca
I sympathise with your predicament. It sounds like absences are being all lumped into one category rather than being dealt with as separate issues. You say that your absence policy states that triggers are for sickness absence. That is normal and appropriate so that a discussion meeting can take place when sickness absence meets a trigger to see if there is an issue (medical or otherwise) that needs addressing.
Absences that are for other reasons are usually covered by a separate policy (or section in a general policy on absence) that indicates how much paid time off a person will normally be given for other requests for absence like appointments, interviews etc. These should also be monitored so that a person can be advised once they have exhausted the amount of paid time off allowed in the policy and advised that any further requests for time off work for those reasons will need to be unpaid, or may be declined if for things like weddings, interviews etc.
If you have a separate policy for absences/time off work for absences other than sickness, and remind managers that trigger points are just for sickness absence but that other absences are monitored and either declined or granted as unpaid, then it should help separate out how these are dealt with and avoid the situation that seems to have occurred through a blurring of these boundaries.
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Sasha | 0 Posts

27 Jun, 2018 00:44

Hi,
If your policy re sickness absence monitoring states that ALL absences can be counted towards triggers, then fine. If not, the policy needs reviewing to state that. But I agree, if the time off for medical appointments etc is being authorised, it’s contradictory. We tend to authorise specialist hospital appointments but general GP or dentist appointments are expected to be made out of working hours. The Principal does allow teachers to go to appointments in PPA time. Consideration is given for emergency doctor appointments.

Maybe Bradford factor isn’t right for your policies? Our staff trigger on either the 10 day or 4th period of sickness absence.

If too much time is being taken for non sickness absence, we manage that under our Leave of Absence policy.

Let me know if you have any questions.
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Tina | 0 Posts

3 Oct, 2018 22:27

Good evening everyone,

I also work in a school and we have problems with our trigger system too. Luckily we do handle sickness absences separate from appointments etc, however there seem to be a bit of confusion (or disagreement) how to proceed when someone has reached the highest trigger point. The HR department is newly established and the school previously moved people onto a `further monitoring period` after reaching the highest trigger point. During this monitoring period they also seem to have excluded absences for operations, and didn`t specify how long the monitoring will go on.

We currently have 4 trigger points. The employee reaches the first point if absent 3 times in a 12 months rolling period. Then we have a meeting with them. The second, third and fourth points are reached if the employee is absent on 2 more occasions since previous meeting within a 12 month period. There is a meeting at every stage. After stage 4 during the monitoring period they allowed employees to be off 3 times within a school term (about 12 weeks period, which seems way too generous).

We are trying to review the policy and get a grip on absences so it would be extremely helpful to see what other organisations do. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Sorry if this is not the best place to ask this but I have been browsing for more than an hour and this was the only topic that I found and was active not long ago.
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