It is my experience that most employees who have had time off work for sickness return to work and continue working hard in their role but there are occasions when other interventions have to be put in place.
Managing absence effectively is basically about ensuring that you have a clear policy in place that not only supports the business objectives and culture but is transparent to all employees and managers. However, there are also elements of legislation that require organisations to provide its employees with ‘any term or condition that relates to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury’ including any provision for sick pay. For example, the policy must inform an employee of their rights and obligations (e.g. an employee is required to inform their line manager by 9:00am that they are unable to attend work due to illness) and be supported by a procedure for managers that is easy to follow and not too time consuming.