Essentially, as an employer, you shouldn’t wait for absences to reach a problematic level before acting. Where an employee has several episodes of recurring short-term absences from work, it is important for you to be aware of potential areas of risk to the business, and to consider whether the employee’s absence record indicates that they may have an underlying health condition, or that there may be another underlying reason that is impacting on the employee’s ability to provide a reliable service to the business.
Return to work interviews and regular 1-2-1 updates are useful tools for you and your managers to use to initiate conversations with your employee; however, in order to establish whether there are any underlying health condition/s, or any other reason/s accounting for the number of absences, and in order to gauge the impact that any underlying health condition/s or reason/s may have in the future, a referral to OH is strongly advised.
This will ensure that your employee has the opportunity to confidentially discuss any issues that they may be experiencing with an independent and suitably qualified clinician; furthermore, by referring your employee to OH, this will also ensure that before considering any business decisions in line with your own internal policies, you are informed, and provided with all relevant information, advice, and guidance relating to the circumstances which in turn will assist when responding to, and managing your employee’s short term recurring absences.