 Every manager will, at some point, have to manage team members always off-sick, and there are so many reasons why employees may be off-sick, for genuine reasons through to not-so-genuine reasons, from days off-sick here and there, to weeks or even months off-sick. We are people, not robots, and we get ill, physically and mentally, and we need time and rest to recover. Most people who take time off from work are genuinely ill and deserve their managers and company support. There are team members that take time off because they don't feel like working that day, or they've had too many drinks that they had the night before, or they're a bit work shy etc. As managers, we want to work out which is which quickly, and take the best action to get that person back into work as quickly as possible. So I'm covering firstly causes of sick leave, second take a look at the mirror, third using a written sickness policy, fourth keeping records, fifth always book a return to work meeting, and sixth don't put action off. Implementing all these steps will reduce the amount of sick days that employees take off when they are not ill. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs. I've won best team prizes at national and company level. Management team members always off sick is not always an easy process, yet doing it the right way makes your life a lot easier and the team a lot happier. And if you're new to this channel, enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video, please hit the thumbs up button and subscribe. The first step to managing team members always off sick is to think about the causes of sick leave. There are so many causes of team members taking sick time off work. They catch bugs, they eat something off, they have unhealthy lifestyles, they have personal health issues, they are parents looking after ill children, there are mental health issues such as depression and anxiety and the list goes on. The best thing as a manager you can do is to find out what the issues are that have caused the person to be off sick. Until you do this you are guessing or speculating. Working out a plan of action without understanding the cause of sick leave is not very sensible. So find out by asking the team member why they need to take time off sick. Be on the lookout for patterns of behaviour. The classics are always off sick on a Monday or a Friday or the day after their football teams big game etc. In my experience the day here and there is much more of a management issue than an employee needing two weeks off sick because of a serious infection or an operation or something similar. Rarely do staff take long periods of time off sick without very good reasons. Keep an eye out for the single days being taken off as sickness. The second step to handle team members always off sick is to take a look in the mirror. When taking a look at the working environment the team member off sick all the time is faced with. It is hard as a manager to look in the mirror and honestly assess if we are the cause or partially the cause of the time off sick. I know the first reaction is to say no no no it can't be me. Do honestly take a moment to think through all the things you have said to the team member or have asked that person to do. Are they overloaded with work? Do they appear stressed or unhappy? Have they become quiet recently and are not interacting with you or the team in the same way as they used to? Has the person's behaviour changed recently in a notable way? Making changes to the working environment and to your own approach to the team might give you a much bigger benefit. Are you a happier team who spend more time at work and who deliver more? That can be worth a lot to you personally. A nicer place to work for starters and quicker promotions. It is always worth taking an honest look in the mirror. The third step in managing team members always off sick is to use a written sickness policy. Having a written policy covering sick leave is about managing expectations. I mean when an employee is sick what should they do? When and how do they need to inform you so you can plan how you are going to cover their work? Asking sick employees to call you on the morning of the sickness rather than sending an email or a text message reduces the temptation to take a day off sick without good reason. And then how many sick days are okay to take? And when does this become not okay? Over what period should we be counting? How many sick days will the company give you full pay for? When does a sick employee need to get a sick note from the doctor? And what happens when the sick team member returns to work? If the answers to these sorts of questions are not written down and available for both the manager and the sick employees to view, how can you get consistent expectations across the company and consistent actions taken? So before deciding how to manage team members off sick, all the time take a careful look at the written sickness policy. Nearly every company has one and if your company doesn't have one then get one in place quickly and communicate the policy to your team in writing. Follow the guidelines set out in the sickness policy. Doing so drives consistency of action and behaviour and also protects your decisions made as a manager of a sick employee. If in doubt speak to your HR team or get legal advice to make sure you are complying with employment laws. Make sure everyone is aware of the ground rules and consistent expectations are set. Ask the sick employee to stick to the rules and expectations set out in the written sickness policy. The fourth step to deal with team members always off sick is to keep records of time off sick. Keeping records though boring and annoying is such an important part of managing team members always off sick. Imagine the conversation with the employee always off sick, you say you are taking a lot of time off sick. They say no I'm not. Without records it is your opinion against their opinion. If you keep records then your response might have been you have taken six days off sick over the last three months on these dates and you have only phoned in once despite this being a requirement of your employment contract. Six days is twice as much as the next highest member of the team. Keeping records moves the conversation from an opinion based conversation to a factual conversation. Fact based conversations always carry more weight than opinion based conversations and are so much harder to argue against. Keep records of sick leave and use these facts when you speak to the team member always off sick. Remember that we are all different you know some people are healthier and rarely get ill others catch every bug around take these patterns into account. Keeping records also sends a message to the individual along the lines of we are serious and can use these records in a disciplinary process if needed. Keeping records deters those who take days off sick who are not actually ill. The fifth step in managing team members off sick all the time is to always book a return to work meeting. Another very important tool to deter those not generally off sick is booking in a return to work meeting and asking the employee to fill out a return to work sick form. If the employee has been genuinely ill then these meetings are also super valuable to find out more about their illness and to see how you and the business can support them as they return to work and potentially prevent further time off. In my experience support given for genuine illness is paid back many times with higher loyalty, higher commitment and better results delivered. So approach the return to work meeting as a fact finding meeting. Don't go into the meeting with your mind made up or to use the meeting to punish the person for being off. This approach harms the situation not helps it. Ask the team member off sick to describe their illness. Ask what they think caused or contributed to their illness and what you as their manager and the wider business can do to support them make a full recovery as quickly as possible. And make sure you have this return to work meeting consistently with every employee off sick and as soon as they're back in the office. Just consistently having this meeting will reduce those not generally ill taking time off sick because they know they'll need to explain themselves when they get back into the office and this can be quite awkward. And this meeting gives you more information to help those suffering with genuine illness. The less time off sick your team members take the easier is for you and your team to do your jobs really well. The sixth step in managing team members always off sick is don't put action off. When you have staff off sick whether short term or long term there is nearly always actions that you should be taking as a manager. These actions typically are to firstly reduce the level of non genuine sick leave. Second support those who are generally sick so they recover as quickly as possible and are able to get back to work as soon as possible. And thirdly to protect the company from waiting money and losing valuable skills and productivity that helps drive the company's success. When you know you need to take action don't put these actions off. Everyone is busy and you will always have 101 reasons not to have the conversation with the employee always off sick or get them to fill out the return to work firm or sit down and plan how you're going to reduce work loads or pressures for a period of time to support them. Don't put these actions off. Taking action quickly and consistently will send the right positive messages to the employee always off sick and the rest of the team that you'll be very supportive of those generally off sick and on the case of those that take time off without good reason. Dealing with team members always off sick is painful time consuming and certainly not the most exciting part of being a manager. Take each of the steps outlined. Firstly find out the cause of the sick leave. Second take a look in the mirror. Third use a written sickness policy. Fourth keep records. Fifth always book a return to work meeting. And sixth don't put the action off. And you'll get the right results for you, the team and the business a lot more easily than not taking these steps. These steps have worked for me in nearly every situation that I've come across if you implement them with consideration and confidence. And if you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.