Interactive Exercise
PERSONNEL FILE – CASE STUDY
This exercise provides you with an employee’s absence records for the past three years and requires you to answer a number of questions relating to the management of this employee in line with the Trust Sickness Absence policy.
Employee Name:Stacey Thompson
Job Title:Housekeeping Assistant
Date Started with the Trust:1st January 2007
Personnel file – Case Study
QUESTIONS
Question 1:How many episodes of sickness has Stacey had in the past 12 months? What is the total number of days lost?
EpisodesDays lost
Question 2:
Which (if any) of these absences should have been covered by a doctor’s note?
Question 3:
Are any of these absences long term? If so which ones?
Question 4:
Looking specifically at the last 12 months, if the sickness absence policy has been followed, what stage should Stacey be at by the end of December 2009?
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Question 5:
Can you identify any patterns of absence within the records for the whole three year period? If so please describe below:
Question 6:
At what point would you have referred Stacey to Occupational Health and what questions would you have asked them?
Question 7:
If you were to conduct a review meeting with Stacey at this point, what questions would you ask her?
Question 8:
As this employee’s manager, what (if any) other actions would you take at this point?
Personnel File – Interactive Exercise
ANSWERS
Question 1:How many episodes of sickness has Stacey had in the past 12 months? What is the total number of days lost?
Answer:
85 days
18 episodes
Question 2:
Which (if any) of these absences should have been covered by a doctor’s note?
Answer:
Employees can Self certify sickness for 7 calendar days.
Any absence over this should be covered by a Doctor’s note.
6th February 2007 for 1 day
15th June 2007 for 1 day
8th/9th November 2007
27th October 2008 for 5 days
29th December 2008 for 5 days
13th July 2009 (if absence was continuous throughout period of booked annual leave) to cover up to return to work on 22nd July 2009
19th October 2009 until 6th November 2009
Question 3:
Are any of these absences long term? If so which ones?
Answer:
Any absence 4 weeks or longer is classed as LONG TERM sickness
12th October 2009, shows as sick for 4 weeks returning to work on 9th November 2009
Question 4:
If the sickness absence policy has been followed, what stage should Stacey be at by the end of December 2009?
Answer:
From 1st January 2008 Stacey would have triggered stage 1 of the sickness absence policy on 17th April 2009 as she had 3 episodes of sickness. If she had been met at stage 1 of the policy upon her return to work and set an attendance target of no more than 1 episode of sickness in a 3 month period (for example) she would have then breached this target on 27th April 2009 when she was absent for 3 consecutive days. Following her return to work she should have been met at stage 2 of the policy and set a further target of (for example) no more than 1 episode in 3 months.
Stacey’s next absence on 29th June for 2 days was recorded as “Unauthorised” as her new manager you would need to investigate the circumstances around this absence and establish whether any action was taken at the time and whether this is recorded on her personnel file.
Either on the basis of her unauthorised absence or her subsequent absence on 6th July, Stacey would have breached her attendance target.
At this point you would need to use your judgement about whether to progress to stage 3 of the policy or whether to allow Stacey the opportunity to improve her attendance. From the absence record you can seen that her sickness from 6th July follows a period of 3 days compassionate leave which indicates that she may have suffered a bereavement. In these circumstances and on the basis that she had only been sent 1 target at stage 2, you may decide not to progress to stage 3 on this occasion but to refer her to occupational health in case she requires counselling and to set her a further attendance target.
Whether the target was no more than 1 in 3 months or no more than 1 in 6 months, Stacey would have again breached this on 12th October. This absence then became long term as it continued for a period of 4 weeks.
Again you would meet with Stacey on her return to work, establish the reasons for absence, seek occupational health advice and decide whether to progress to stage 3 or set a new target. At this point Stacy has breached her target twice and for consistency you should consider progressing to Stage 3 of the sickness absence policy with advice from your HR Advisor.
If Stacey was referred to stage 3 of the policy and set a further target she would have breached this on 20th December. At this point she would be managed under stage 3 and potentially referred to a disciplinary hearing.
Question 5:
Can you identify any patterns of absence within the records for the whole three year period? If so please describe below:
Answer:
Stacey has had a total of 8 days carers leave over the 3 year period and 4 of these episodes are adjacent to annual leave or sickness absence
Many of Stacey’s absences fall either immediately before or after days off
Around 20th October Stacy always has the same week off, either annual leave or sickness – does this coincide with any school holidays?
Stacey always has Christmas off, again either annual leave or sickness
Question 6:
At what point during the past 12 months would you have referred Stacey to Occupational Health and what would you have hoped to find out each time?
Answer:
Depending on the reasons given for absence you may have decided to refer Stacey to Occupational Health either at Stage 1 or the first time she breached her targets at Stage 2 in order to establish whether there is an underlying health condition causing her regular absences.
You may also have referred Stacey to Occupational Health when she suffered a bereavement to see whether she would benefit from counselling
It is advisable to refer any long term sick case to occupational health, Stacey had a long term absence in October. She should have been referred to Occupational Health in order to establish a diagnosis and long term prognosis for her health condition. It would also have been useful to ask about a likely return to work date, whether the condition could be classed as a disability under the DDA and whether there are any reasonable adjustments that could be made in order to facilitate a successful return to work
Question 7:
If you were to conduct a review meeting with Stacey at this point, what questions would you ask her?
Answer:
If you were Stacey’s new manager and you established that there had been no previous review meetings you would need to cover the following:
- Review previous absence history
- Review previous occupational health involvement and advice
- Discuss most recent or current absence – reasons and length
- Outline sickness absence policy and expectations
- Refer immediately to stage 2 of the policy and set targets
- Refer to occupational health if appropriate
- Discuss any potential adjustments that could be helpful
Question 8:
As this employee’s manager, what (if any) other actions would you take at this point?
Answer:
- Refer to occupational health if appropriate
- Discuss with your HR Advisor
- Set targets (if no previous management) or refer to disciplinary hearing (if Stacy has consistently breached targets set)