Employee sickness absence can have a huge affect on the cost to an organisation. However with correct sickness absence management, this can have a positive outcome for both employer & employee. This is why Valentine provides an effective method to manage employee absence. Depending on the specific case and nature of an employee’s absence will ultimately affect who the employee will need to be referred too. This could be either an occupational health advisor or occupational health physician.

Positive Management Referrals

Managers may want to refer an employee in situations whereby the employee is:

• Returning to work following prolonged absence
• A possible underlying medical problem affecting employees performance
• Repetition of short spells of absence
• Absence over a long period due to ill health

Beneficial Sickness Absence Management

Furthermore, the referral process is often beneficial to both the employee and employer as this can include:

• Proactive approach to absence management reduces absence rates and associated absence
• Enhances employee productivity
• Speeds up an employee’s return to work
• Positive effect on risk control and civil claims
• Effective and clear onward progression of cases (enabling parties to move forward)

These services assist employers in carrying out their duty of care and responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 (and the health and safety regulations made under this Act).

Finally, we have a couple of ways in which we can process a referral to help you deal with sickness absence management. You can complete our Management Referral Form or use our online Portal whereby you can submit a referral completely paperless online.

Following receipt of a referral Valentine can triage the information presented and feedback on the options available such as a remote assessments or face to face assessments  at the work site, local clinic or in certain instances workers home.

Additionally, if you are ready to start this process you will need to communicate this to your employee; To help with this we have an example “Occupational Health Assessment – Letter to Employee“.