Attendance & Performance
Staff’s performance can be affected by their attendance – or lack of it due to sick leave, or other absences – or by their understanding & ability to cope with their work. For any small business, poor performance can cause all sorts of headaches: perhaps you’re unavailable to cover the employee due to an important meeting, but can’t afford to pay for more staff to allow for these eventualities, and need someone in the workplace to handle sales. (Unless appropriate measures are implemented, this can all be complicated further by other employee’s legitimate time-off: see Flexible Working for details of how the Employment Law Clinic can help your business manage the peaks & troughs of attendance.)
As with other areas of employment, it’s important that the employer has a good understanding of their responsibilities, and meets all their legal obligations if you’re to avoid subsequent grievances or Employment Tribunal claims.
Sick Leave
If you want to avoid further complications, it’s never as simple as sacking someone who you consider has had too much time off sick. But neither is it sensible or adequate to maintain staff on the payroll & take no action in the case of frequent or lengthy absences: as an employer, you have responsibilities not to discriminate (sacking someone with high levels of sick leave could be discriminatory) & a duty of care to your staff, and ignoring or not addressing any underlining reasons for lots of sick leave may mean you’re not meeting this duty.
Poor Performers
Similar things go for a employee who cannot perform their duties to an acceptable standard: as an employer, you must first explore what reasonable adjustments or other assistance you can make, or what training or support-needs remain. Sacking someone without first attempting to bring about improvement – supported by positive actions by the employer – could lead to grievances or Employment Tribunal claims.
It’s therefore essential that you have policies in place to deal with absences & other poor performance issues. These needn’t be cumbersome & extensive, but should set out what steps you will take when issues arise, and what co-operation is expected from the member of staff. If all actions fail, dismissal may be appropriate as a last resort, but first of all make sure you‘ve satisfied the expectations & responsibilities upon you!
The Employment Law Clinic can provide small employers with standard policies for dealing with Attendance & Performance, or these can be tailor-made to suit your organisation. We can also provide assistance & guidance from experienced managers in the various stages that you might expect to follow where attendance or performance becomes an issue.