Sick leave is soaring: what can a small business do to get well soon?

Sick, carers and personal leave has increased enormously since pre-COVID times and that places a heavy burden on small business owners. Here’s what you can do to lessen the impact.

The amount of sick, carers and personal leave taken by employees of SMEs reached a 44 per cent increase in July compared to a pre-COVID baseline, according to business management platform MYOB.

With COVID nearing its predicted peak, as well as other colds and flu circulating throughout the community, the impact on small business has been palpable.

“It has been a difficult winter for many small businesses, and we continue to see them dealing with leave requirements brought on by COVID and other illnesses,” says Helen Lea, chief employee experience officer at MYOB.

“After a brief drop in the amount of sick, carers and personal leave taken by small business employees in June, MYOB data shows the July peak reached 44 per cent above the long-term average. This is a similar level to what we saw in April and May, although thankfully not as high as January where SMEs were grappling with more than 100 per cent increase in employees taking this leave.”

So if you’re feeling the pinch of employee leave, rest assured you’re not alone. The impact can be almost too much to bear for a small business, both in terms of the direct cost of sick leave and the loss of productivity.

Sick or just sick of work?

Your employees’ right to personal and carer’s leave falls within the 11 minimum entitlements of the National Employment Standards. It allows people to take the time they need to look after their health and also prevents social illnesses like COVID or the flu from spreading throughout your workplace.

Full-time employees can take 10 days of paid sick or carer’s leave and part-time employees have a pro rata of ten days each year, depending on their hours of work. In other words, if a part-time employee works three days per week across the period of a single year, they will accrue six days of leave.

An employee can take as much paid sick or carer’s leave as they have accumulated. There’s no maximum amount of leave that can be taken at a time.

While sick leave is an important entitlement to ensure the nation’s health, it can certainly be open to abuse by some people. There are a few procedures you can put in place to help prevent your employees taking unnecessary time off work:

Monitor absences

If you record instances of personal or sick leave, you can check for reoccurring absenteeism and talk to your staff member about it.

Request proof of illness

You can make it a standard procedure that a medical certificate or similar is given to explain the reason for employee absence.

Have a return to work interview

Firstly, this is a great way to check in with your returning staff member and ensure they are well enough to be back on the job. Secondly, if someone is habitually pulling a sickie, having to face an interview with their manager on their return to work might just put them off.

Prevention is better than time off work for a cure

It pays to be proactive, so there are also a few things you can do to help keep your employees fighting fit and on the job. These ideas should help prevent both actual sick leave and absenteeism.

Encourage good mental and physical health

You can introduce specific workforce perks for all staff, like a discounted gym membership, meditation classes or joining the local touch footy comp as a team. Or you can simply encourage activity and connection during the work day, like walking meetings, providing fresh fruit for snacks or heading out for a walk together at lunch time.

Watch for burnout

If a staff member is regularly burning the candle at both ends, have a chat with them about reducing their workload. Don’t wait for them to approach you, be proactive. The more rundown and stressed your team gets, the less productive they’ll be anyway.

Engage with your team

Be the kind of boss who encourages their employees to speak up if they’re disengaged or struggling in the job. The more you know, the more you can help. Look for ways you can upskill your team or provide cross-team opportunities. Ensure you foster the kind of culture that collaborates, not competes.

Offer flexibility

For some people, knowing they get a ‘doona day’ once a quarter to spend as they like is enough to discourage taking a sickie when they feel like it. If you allow for these mental health days, you can schedule them in and plan for them.

Winter is leaving, but sickness might stick around for a while yet

While winter officially ends this month, small businesses may not see a decline in leave just yet.

“With some experts predicting the COVID peak will hit in mid-August, it may be another month until COVID cases subside and warmer weather provides some relief from the uptake of sick, carers and personal leave on small businesses,” Lea says.

In the meantime, hang in there. The disruption caused by extra illness is tough-going, but we’ve been through far worse and we’re all still standing so far.

Want more? Get our newsletter delivered straight to your inbox! Follow Kochie’s Business Builders on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.