a Medical Care company recognise and tackle patterned absenteeism

This is how we helped a Medical Care company recognise and tackle patterned absenteeism. We had a domiciliary care provider approach us late last year with a concern surrounding one of their employees. The employer claimed that the employee in question would almost always phone in sick on a Monday morning or they would arrive late to their domiciliary appointments. This meant that the employer would need to find other staff members to cover these shifts and sometimes would mean that care was not provided to clients.

In any workplace, regular absence can affect the businesses overall performance. As an employer you have hired someone to be reliable and in the medical care industry it is vital that you can provide a consistent service to your clients.

Employers can expect employees to come to work, must accommodate as required under the Human Rights Act and have the right to be informed of the basis for an inability to work including the limitations or accommodations required. Employees in turn are expected to fulfil their duties under employment contracts, mitigate absence, provide information about the absence, expected return to work dates and requirements. Employees must also fully cooperate with the employer’s efforts to reasonably accommodate.

We wanted to investigate further into these absences as we could see a pattern to their unscheduled occurrence. Pattern absenteeism is where an employee’s absence is regular and has a tracked pattern. For instance, an employee who is known to party heavily over the weekend and can’t make it to work Mondays would fall into this category.

Our strategy began with collecting evidence of the regular absences and then schedule a meeting with the employee. The meeting needed to be structured and focused on the task at hand. We always prioritise employee retention. If the issue can be resolved through a conversation no further disciplinary action is required. We want the employee to feel supported and safe in their work environment but ultimately, the employee must uphold their side of the employment contract.

During the meeting we presented the data we collected on their absences and presented the potential impact of these absences. This was important due to the nature of the domiciliary work, as the employee’s absence could greatly impact the quality of life of the company’s clients. We asked about the nature of the absence, as we did not want to discipline any absence reasoning that falls under the Equal Rights Act 2010, unfairly discriminating against an employee for any specific protected characteristics. Or see if the company could further support the employee in order to mitigate the patterned absence.

In concluding the meeting, we determined that the absence was due to partying heavily over the weekend. The employee was not able to fulfil their employment duties and so the correct disciplinary action was termination of their employment.

We are not advocates of resorting solely to termination of employment, most of the time we would like the resulting conclusion to involve staff becoming a reliable member of the team. However, the evidence that came to light in our investigation suggested that the employee was not able to fulfil their duties in a safe and reliable manner.