Responsibilities

Employees are expected to:

• attend work regularly, but in the event of absence due to ill health or injury, comply with the notification requirements in the Conditions of Employment (under section 10) or for seconded employees in accordance with the terms of the secondment agreement;
• keep their manager informed regularly of progress towards recovery and return to work during periods of absence;
• where health is impacting on work/where work is impacting on health, consider a discussion with their line manager to establish if an Occupational Health referral would be beneficial in providing guidance and advice;
• engage with return to work conversations and any meetings held under the Sickness Absence Procedure;
• report any accidents or other safety-relating incidents immediately, in accordance with the accident reporting requirements detailed in the University’s Safety Policy;
• take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and other people who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work, as required under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the University’s Safety Policy.

Managers are expected to:

• engage in appropriate leadership development and training relating to sickness absence and supporting employee health and wellbeing;
• ensure that employees are fully aware of the contractual requirements and procedures for notifying and certifying sickness and that these requirements are applied;
• provide support to employees to promote health and wellbeing at work. For example, 1:1 conversations to understand individual health circumstances, considering whether adjustments may be beneficial to support health and reduce sickness absence;
• be aware of employees who may be exhibiting signs that they are struggling with their health, and once recognised, engage with and signpost to additional support services that may be required. For example, the University’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) Spectrum Life for in the moment support with a counsellor, a referral to Occupational Health (following employee consent) for advice and guidance;
• record sickness absence, and phased returns where appropriate, in iTrent in accordance with University and Faculty/Service administrative procedures;
• agree frequency and method of welfare contact with employees during periods of sickness absence;
• identify concerns over attendance and/or wellbeing and address these with the employee at the earliest opportunity;
• carry out return to work conversations following periods of sickness absence;
• monitor and respond to sickness absence in accordance with this guidance and the Sickness Absence Procedure, ensuring that standards of sensitivity, fairness, consistency and confidentiality are maintained and taking advice from Human Resources.
• undertake the responsibilities detailed in the University's Safety Policy to ensure safe systems of work, including accident reporting requirements and appropriate training.

Management Information (MI) Hub

For all managers with line management responsibilities, the My Team report will show absence data. To see detailed sickness information for their team, managers should refer to the ‘Sickness Absence’ button along the top of the screen. This information includes an absence summary and a summary of employees who have recurrent short-term absence or long-term absence.  Managers can also ‘drill’ into their team members details by clicking on their employee number in the ‘Current Staff List’ on the right of the screen.

For Senior Managers the My Faculty/Service report will show full absence data and is updated every 24 hours.

Pro-Vice-Chancellors (for Faculties) and Divisional Directors (for Professional Services) are responsible for:

• ensuring that employees with management responsibilities are aware of their role in relation to sickness absence and supporting employee health and wellbeing;
• sharing sickness monitoring reports with relevant managers;
• ensuring that records held within the Faculty/Service are kept securely and confidentially and data protection rules are adhered to.

Human Resources (HR) are responsible for:

• providing training to enable managers to remain up to date and confident in supporting their employees’ health and wellbeing and through stages of the Sickness Absence Procedure;
• advising managers on appropriate responses to sickness absence in accordance with this guidance and the Sickness Absence Procedure;
• supporting managers with referrals to Occupational Health;
• advising managers and/or employees on redeployment, phased returns, reduced hours of work, retirement and reasonable adjustments, as appropriate, based on advice from Occupational Health;
• advising employees who are absent when their SSP and University Sick Pay status changes.

Occupational Health is responsible for ensuring appropriate standards of confidentiality are maintained. In relation to the Sickness Absence Procedure and in response to an Occupational Health management referral, the University’s Occupational Health service is responsible for meeting with an employee and (with the employees’ consent) providing a report to their line manager and HR Advisor containing the following information:

• providing information and advice on the nature, extent and impact of any health condition in relation to an employee’s contractual duties;
• advising on fitness to work;
• advising on possible adjustments at work for managers to consider;
• providing an opinion on the likely prognosis of the condition;
• providing an opinion on if the employee may meet the criteria of disability under the Equality Act 2010 (although this is a legal decision ultimately);
• providing advice, information and guidance to the employee to support their health and wellbeing;
• recommending that the employee approaches Access to Work for additional support, if deemed appropriate;
• where employees do not give consent for Occupational Health to report back to the line manager and HR, and a perceived safety issue exists, Occupational Health will provide an opinion on fitness to work only.

Sickness information coordinators are based in Faculties and Services. Where used, for their area of responsibility they are responsible for:

• supporting with the recording and updating of sickness absence information for employees in iTrent;
• ensuring electronic self-certification forms are completed for each individual absence and any relevant medical fit notes/certificates are securely maintained;
• recording details of agreed phased returns to work in iTrent.