In our quest for a happy, healthy team, we encourage all our team members to maximise your attendance at work, whether in the office or working from home. We fully understand that a certain level of absence is inevitable for a variety of reasons, including sickness.
However, if you’re frequently absent from work or are absent for a lengthy period, this can damage our efficiency and productivity, and place an additional burden on the rest of the team.
For that reason, we operate an attendance policy with the aim of striking a reasonable balance between our business needs and your personal needs. The aim of this policy is to encourage reliable attendance so we can run a well-balanced team.
For the purpose of this policy, all employee absences are counted except for approved holidays, family leave periods, approved compassionate leave, pregnancy-related absences, absences resulting from a workplace accident, and absences related to an employee disability (unless it’s justifiable to include them).
Application of this policy is completely separate from the disciplinary procedure. It doesn’t mean that you’ve done or are doing anything wrong.
Attendance Procedure
Our attendance procedure has three stages. At each stage, there’s a ‘trigger point’ relating to the amount of time you’ve been absent from work. When you reach a trigger point, the Directors may interview you and, depending on the circumstances, might issue a warning about unsatisfactory attendance.
Stage one: Stage one is activated when you’ve been absent from work for 10 working days in any 12-month period.
We’ll hold an attendance review meeting with one of the Directors to discuss the reasons for your poor attendance. If we’re unsatisfied with the outcome of this meeting, we’ll issue a first written warning for unsatisfactory attendance.
If your level of attendance improves in the following 12 months, you’ll be removed from this procedure.
Stage two: Stage two is activated if you’re absent from work for 8 working days in the 12-month period following stage one.
We’ll hold a second attendance review meeting, which could result in a second written warning.
If your attendance improves during the following 12 months, you’ll drop back to stage one for the next 12 months.
Stage three: Stage three is a repeat of the second stage – 8 days absence in the 12 months following our second review meeting. This could result in the employee’s dismissal, unless there are exceptional mitigating circumstances.
We understand that there are sometimes reasons for absence that are beyond your control (for example, compassionate leave). Should this be the case, we’ll still invite you to a meeting to see what’s going on and whether you need any additional support, but we wouldn’t issue a written warning. If you’ve reached stage three, we will take this into consideration before deciding whether you’ll be dismissed.
We keep a written record of the key points discussed in the meeting and the final outcome, and you’ll have a copy for your records.
The People Manager, is responsible for implementing and monitoring this policy.