Pregnancy Related Absence
We should not be including any pregnancy related sickness within our Bradford Factor (and so it shouldn’t be those absences that trigger the attendance review). We have created a separate absence category for pregnancy related sickness. Therefore, if a member of your team goes off work due to pregnancy related sickness please select ‘sickness – pregnancy’. For example, they may be unable to come into work due to ‘morning sickness’ this should then be documented as pregnancy related sickness. If however a staff member has a sickness bug (and is pregnant) this should be recorded as ‘sickness’.
Do we need the self certification form?
- No, we now do not need to use the self certification form if the staff member accepts the absence via the staff database.
What if I work part-time – how do we do a return to work? How quickly do we need to mark someone as back on the staff database?
A staff member should be marked as ‘returned’ on the staff database on the day they return (the staff member can do this themselves or anyone ‘up’ the chain can, as can the people and culture team). This means that we can ensure pay isn’t affected and also if accounts were paused whilst they were off, confirms that these should be turned back on.
Gold standard is then to also have the return to work on day 1, however this can practically sometimes not be possible. If this is the case (especially if the absence is due to something like a sickness bug) then ensure that someone (if you can’t as you don’t work then Senior management can do this / People and Culture Team) ‘checks in’ with the staff member of day 1. And plan a full return to work within the next couple of days.
However, if the staff member has been off for a while, or if their absence is related to work stress, then a return to work does need to be completed on day 1, with short term planning in place and therefore planning with the wider team (including the People and Culture Team) who can do this if it is not your working day is needed. It could be that the meeting is done in two steps, and when you are next back in work you can have a further conversation to check nothing is missed.
What if you have ended Attendance Review period, with targets being met, but the Bradford Factor is still high?
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- Part of this question is linked with starting an attendance review when Bradford Factor is already really high – and therefore over time if we are responding sooner, we could be in a different position
- There is not a simple answer to this question, and depending on the situation will depend on the response so please reach out to the People and Culture Team but a few approaches. We want the attendance review to be supportive and to
- We could close but continue to pick up any heart behind the learning in 1 to 1s. E.g. if the staff member was becoming ill regularly because they were struggling to rest, that could be a conversation that is continued
- We could close and let the staff member know that the likelihood is if they have more absence then we will reopen
- We could keep open (due to the high Bradford Factor) and modify the targets accordingly and also the wider support that we need to put in place.
If someone has come in and left part way through the day how do I record this?
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- If someone has come and done some work in the morning but then gone home before lunch, you can mark half a days absence on the staff database. If they leave at 4pm but have worked most of the afternoon and are in the next day, there is no clear way of recording that. It could however be helpful to make a note of this in your diary, to see if there is a pattern which could be brought up in 1 to 1’s, or recorded on the staff database as a 0 days absence.
Compassionate leave – how do we record this? Does it affect the Bradford Factor?
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- On the staff database when you start to record an absence you can select the type of absence, compassionate leave being one option, this then does not affect the Bradford Factor