Advisory booklet - Managing attendance and employee turnover

Booklet summary

Acas Managing attendance booklet This link opens in a new browser window

This booklet answers some of questions you might have when an employee is absent from work due to sickness or unauthorised absence.

Questions like:

How can I tell if someone is genuinely sick or if they just didn't feel like coming to work?
Can I dismiss someone when they are away sick?
How do I talk to my employees about why they were away?
What action can I take to improve the attendance of my employees?

Most sickness is genuine and unauthorised absence may be caused by family commitments or stress. However, these situations are difficult to manage because they are often sudden and unexpected. This leaves some managers feeling unsure about what they can do. This booklet will help you develop an action plan based upon:

having the 'difficult conversation' with an employee when they return to work
looking after the health and wellbeing of your employees developing an overall approach to absence by linking attendance to job design, good employment relations, health and safety, flexible working and effective disciplinary procedures.

This booklet covers both managing long and short-term sickness and tries to uncover the real reasons why people are absent from work.

The booklet is available to download from the 'Download PDF' link below. Alternatively, hard copies are available to order from our publications section of the site.