It's All About People - 31st October

READ TIME - 3 minute read

Welcome Back

This week’s It’s All About People covers:

🎃 Happy Halloween

💷 Why absence is about to cost you a lot more, if you don’t take action

💻️ New training - register your interest

🗓️ Events coming up

This week I was particularly impressed with my son and his Uni friends artistic endeavours with their pumpkins.

We do hope that for those of you who enjoy Halloween that you have a fun evening tonight.

Last week’s webinar on the law changes was as popular as ever, this time we focused on dismissals - since the announcement of Unfair Dismissal becoming a day one right.

The media have caused a lot of panic around this, despite it not coming in until Autumn 2026 at the earliest. So this week I wanted to focus on something that is likely to come in a lot sooner, and potentially cost organisations a LOT more.

Let’s go 👇️ 

💷 Why absence is about to cost you a lot more, if you don’t take action

Although there is no confirmed date yet for these changes, the government have said several times this is a priority so I cannot imagine it will be too long before it happens.

So, why will it cost you more?

• removing the usual three-day waiting period - so you will have to pay someone SSP from day one of absence.

• removing the lower earnings limit (currently £123 per week), which would allow workers to receive SSP even if they are low-paid or working multiple part-time roles.

   

Therefore, if as an organisation you have high rates of absence then it is about to cost you a lot more financially.

Statistics show that in 2023, approximately £76 million was paid out by organisations in SSP alone.

The second main change is that they will remove the minimum earnings that someone has to have to qualify for SSP. At the moment anyone whole earns less that £123/week does not get SSP when sick.

So what does this mean? As with the above, sickness may increase in those who earn less, as they will now get SSP.

😷 What Should I Be Doing Now?

📈 In short, you should be looking at your absence data and seeing what you can improve on now before it costs you even more.

Find out the average sickness rates for your industry / sector and see how you compare.

🤒 Look at types of sickness absence and the length of time people take off - are there any patterns. Does one team / department seem to be off a lot more than others?

💁 Make sure there is a return to work meeting after every absence, so that reasons can be discussed and to see if any help is needed . The return to work interview is crucial to managing sickness absence.

In the simplest terms it is the conversation that a manager has with a team member when they come back from a period of sickness absence - whether one day or 6 months; always do one.

📋️ Minimising Sickness Absence

As with so many things in life, prevention is better than cure. As an organisation you need to promote a wellbeing culture and support for team members to look after their health.

This does not need to cost you a lot of money, but with mental health being the biggest cause of absence, it is vital to look at options.

Ideas we have seen from clients is access to Mental Health Support Apps, training team members to be Mental Health Champions and also providing healthcare plans.

You also need to be sure that your organisation is somewhere people enjoy coming to work, so they only call in sick if they genuinely are - as opposed to not wanting to come to work.

That’s all for this week – have a great week all.

Emma 

Thank You

Thank you for being part of our It’s All About People community.

Stay tuned for next week’s email, and until then have a wonderful week!

Emma

P.S. If you're a member of our HR Hub, there are LOADS of resources to help you manager absence in the Hub.

 P.P.S.  If you are not a Hub member why not give it a try for only £7 for 7 days membership. You can do that here.

P.P.P.S If we have not connected on LinkedIn yet, I would love to connect

Events to Join in the coming weeks (click on the links to join us)

HR Masterclass - Values Aligned, Success Defined (free to all clients, £150+VAT for non-clients) - 7th November 9.30am-12.30pm

Lunch & Learn - Managing Conflict (free to all clients, £35+VAT for non-clients) - 12th November 12 - 1pm

Make Work Pay – Labour’s 100 Day Plan for HR & Leaders (Free Webinar) - 13th November 12-1pm

HR Clinic (free to all, come and ask your HR questions) - 19th November 12-1pm