“The Honeydew team goes above and beyond by holding bi-monthly service reviews and helping us to identify different areas of opportunity to make our absence reporting process even better and how to utilise the data and information available. We are more than satisfied with the service, we enjoy working with Honeydew and would recommend the Day-1 Absence Reporting service to any business looking to improve absence reporting and management” Continue reading
Category Archives: Blog
CIPD Health and Wellbeing survey 2022
CIPD have released their annual Health and Wellbeing at Work report 2022. The headline findings include the prevalence of long Covid and mental health issues. However, with Covid in remission, attention to health and wellbeing is declining. Continue reading
Focus on mental health after Covid-19 restrictions are lifted
Throughout the pandemic, the uncertainty and worries have heightened the mental health issues everyone has to deal with in their daily lives. On 9th February, Boris Johnson announced that the last Covid isolation rule could be scrapped a month early. That would mean we’ll be back to ‘normal’ life, in terms of work and socialising, although it’ll hardly feel fully normal to most. Employers should be mindful of the impacts the pandemic has and will continue to have on their employees. The effects will vary between individuals so listening to employees is important. Continue reading
Absence management in a pandemic
I am going to be bold enough to assume that no absence policy was ever written with a global pandemic in mind. Until now. At the time of writing this, we are still in the midst of the chaos caused by Covid-19. The disease has been with us for nearly two years and the situation keeps evolving. This makes it very hard to draw policy decisions on how to manage absence that is caused by Covid-19. Nevertheless, we have already learned a few good lessons and will share them in this article.
Best practice absence policy: how to manage exceptions
Your absence policy should be a blueprint for managers to follow but not so rigid that there is no space for discretion. Discretion doesn’t mean that managers should be able to pick
and choose when to implement the policy. Quite the opposite, meetings and discussions should be held on all occasions.
Continue reading
Mental health at Christmas
Even though Christmas is a time of celebration, it can be a difficult time for many. Rehab4Addiction have put together this useful infographic about the scale of negative mental health issues faced by some people in the UK during this time of year. Read the infographoc for some tips on how to cope better this Christmas. Continue reading
How to manage complex absence cases
28 calendar days is a common definition of long-term absence. There’s nothing wrong with this definition in itself. However, waiting 4 weeks to offer support or consider referral to support services is a missed opportunity. This often means that medical appointments don’t take place until the 6th or 7th week of the absence. It also delays the welfare review meeting with management further to the 8th or 9th week of the absence.
Keeping track of sick and fit notes
Under UK law, employees can self-certificate for the first 7 days of a sickness absence. After 7 calendar days they need to get a fit note from a doctor. The 1-week rule applies to everyone, regardless of how many days per week they normally work. The fit note is essentially a legal document that entitles the employee to statutory sick pay. Continue reading
Indirect cost of absence measured in management time
Absence costs are made up of a lot of parts you may not have considered. The direct costs are perhaps more obvious, but are you aware of everything that makes up the indirect cost of absence? Continue reading
How to address recurring absence in your policy
A good absence policy sets out acceptable levels of absence and guides managers to review absence patterns early on. It should also provide a clear guide for follow-up actions. When more serious consequences should follow from a poor attendance record. Quite often the first meeting or referral is not the end of the story. The condition may cause another absence further down the line. There may also be follow-up actions like workplace adjustments and risk assessments to complete as a result of the initial review. Managers should review regularly if the measures are working and check in with how the employee is doing, especially if they have a further absence from work.