Sick call? Take control

Your work day begins, with a cup of coffee in hand you go to see what this day will bring. Then the phone rings. It's one of your employees, he calls to call in sick. Good absenteeism management , of course, starts before an employee calls in sick. Ensuring a good and safe work atmosphere, personal attention and a good workplace are all parts of preventing absenteeism. Should an employee still call in sick, how do you ensure that you are providing the right guidance from the start?

Too often I hear that an employee has called in sick to the supervisor and no follow-up appointments have been made. The supervisor wished employee well and thus ended the phone call. No agreements were made about when there would be contact again, or what the possibilities of modified work are. In this way, you immediately lose control of your absence file and give an employee every opportunity to prolong the sick leave. Fortunately, we all have employees who return to work as soon as they can. However, we also all know the employees who call in sick with a cold and tell you in the same breath that they might be back next week at the earliest. Especially with these employees, maintaining control during absenteeism is crucial.

But how do you do that, stay in control? Make sure you always make an appointment with your employee. If there is no opportunity for modified work, make sure you agree that an employee will get back in touch the next day, for example. When it is clear that absenteeism will take several weeks or months because of a serious medical situation, for example, make sure that regular contact is maintained. Every day, of course, does not make sense, but once every two weeks is an excellent arrangement.

When you have a sick employee on the phone, you often hear all the things a person can no longer do. While it is quite useful to have an indication of a sick employee's limitations, it is much more interesting to talk about the capabilities an employee still has. Someone with leg problems may no longer be able to stand all day, but would be able to perform sedentary work, for example.

When looking at the possibilities of (modified) work, this should obviously be a collaboration between employer and employee. What I often see is that a supervisor is working very hard to come up with adapted work that employee could perform, and that the employee in question shoots down these ideas one by one. In such a situation, it is important to place the responsibility on the employee as well. Ask the employee to come up with their own ideas, and address the employee on the behavior he or she shows.

Taking and keeping control in an absence process is not always easy. It is important to keep practicing with this. The Labor and Health Advisor can help you with this. In addition, it is also possible to receive training, where trainers and actors help you to steer conversations with sick employees.

Would you like to know more about our approach in absenteeism and prevention? Then contact us or take a look at our website.