Speaker 1: 0:33

Hello, hivemates, and welcome back to Buzzing About HR, the podcast that turns fiddly people problems into sweet golden honey for the small business owner. I'm Kate Underwood, your resident HR queen. Bee and full disclosure. My desk currently holds more coffee mugs than pens. Desk currently holds more coffee mugs than pens.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Today we're talking about a particularly British institution, the sickie. You know the one I can't possibly come in because the dog looks sad, or its 21st century cousin. I'll be working from my duvet. But behind every tongue-in-cheek headline is a very real, very expensive issue for small firms. So over the next 20 minutes or so I'll guide you through the latest stats, the legal guardrails, the hidden costs, a few frankly ridiculous excuses and a bit of tech magic that spares you from the spreadsheet purgatory. Kettle on. Let's buzz the state of the British sickie.

Speaker 1: 1:42

First, the numbers. The CIPD health and well-being at work survey tells us that the typical UK employee chalked up 7.8 days of sickness absence last year, the worst we've seen in more than a decade. That isn't a blip. It's a two-day jump on the final pre-pandemic year of 2019. If you felt as though half your team had been downloading daytime television instead of spreadsheets, you're not imagining it. In fact, the Office for National Statistics points out that those missed days now swallow 3.4% of the UK's total working time, effectively meaning one person out of every 30 is off sick at any one given moment. And no, it's not just winter sniffles. Mental health related absence is the big climber. Anxiety, depression and burnout together have overtaken back pain as the leading long-term cause for workers under 44. Even the CIPD's own researchers flagged that this is a wake-up klaxon moment for employers. Now, if you're running a business with 10 staff, every one of those 7.8 days lands squarely on your lap. There is no giant middle management cushion to soak it up. It's you, the client deadline and the ringing phone, which is why today's show is squarely small business flavoured. Large corporates have occupational health teams and HRS dashboards the size of Starship Enterprise. Most of my clients have a heroic office manager who's also head of biscuits. That's who I'm talking to.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Translating statistics into real money. Let's do the maths together. Promise it won't be painless. From the 1st of April 2025, the national living wage for anyone 21 and over jumps to £12.21 an hour. Multiply that by a standard seven and a half hour day and you're just at £91 in basic pay.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Take a modest five-person firm. Those 7.8 days of absence per head clock up to almost 300 lost hours a year. At National Living Wage, that's a direct wage cost in the region of three and a half grand Money. You pay out exactly as though everyone turned up, but which delivers zero widgets, haircuts or lattes in return. Scale to 10 employees and the bill hits a little over £7,000. For 25 staff you're past £17,000 and at 50, you're flirting with the cost of a brand new electric van. And remember, that's only the wage line. If you cover shifts with freelancers at 30% premium or your one missing barista means that Saturday Q snakes out the cafe door and half of those would-be flat whites march off to Cafe Nero, the true hit is far bigger. The image I share with finance directors is this Imagine stacking every missed hour into a single block at year end. A 10 person firm loses nearly three working weeks in sickness every year. Picture three desks in your office being empty from the 1st of January until the 21st of January. That's what it costs.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Legal sat-nav staying on the right side of the Equality Act, all roads and absence management eventually lead to employment law. So let's pop our seatbelts on no Latin, I promise. First up is the Equality Act 2010. Many long-term health issues physical and mental count as disabilities if they last, or are expected to last, at least 12 months and subsequently affect normal day-to-day life. Once that definition is met met, you as an employer shoulder a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments. In the real world that might mean allowing phased return to work hours, providing a different chair for chronic back pain or letting an anxiety prone team member start at 10 rather than half past eight to dodge the rush hour crush. Skip those adjustments and you run straight into disability discrimination claim. The average award which came in last year was just a little over £21,000. Not to mention the solicitor's fees, management time and the PR headache of seeing your brand name on an employment tribunal judgment.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Next, everyone's favourite statutory sick pay. It's set nationally at £123.25 per week for up to 28 weeks and kicks in on day four of any spell of sickness. Plenty of small business. Supplement that with a week or two weeks full pay because it feels compassionate and it encourages honesty. But due to check and balance flows, implications before making promises you can't sustain. Add data protection. Illness information is special category data under GDPR Translation. You cannot scribble Claire's endometriosis details on a sticky note and leave it on a desktop monitor, lock it down.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Finally, if absence becomes unmanageable, you may enter the capability process. That path medical evidence, occupational health advice, formal meetings, right of appeal is long and deliberately so, because terminating for ill health is a last resort. My motto document, as though they're going to court. Even if you never will, future you will thank present you A practical toolkit fit for a two-page policy.

Speaker 1: 8:21

I spend half my consultancy life paring clients' absence policies down from war and peace to something that actually gets read. Aim for two pages and a flowchart State who a sick employee contacts, how and by what time. Hint, a phone call is harder to make than fake a WhatsApp emoji at 02.17. Then pledge a return to work. Chat every single time Five calm minutes, a brew, two questions how are you now, and is there anything we can tweak to help? Managers often think these meetings are detective work. They're not. They're deterrent. People are statistically less likely to throw a casual sickie if they know they must face a conversation about it. And they're also genuine welfare checks.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Triggers come next, and the Bradford factor is the crowd favourite because it weights frequency. Three separate one-day absences adds up to a Bradford score of 27, while one three-day chunk is only three. Decide where you'll flash amber, say 200, and where you go red tomato, maybe 400. When someone crosses amber, have an informal chat. Red, you're into a formal stage of your policy. Speed matters. If Pete in the warehouse says that the slip disc isn't improving after two weeks, don't wait until four months to send him to occupational health.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Early OH involvement can be the difference between a six-week absence and a six-month absence. And never underestimate micro flexibility. I once had a graphic designer whose asthma peaked when commuting on cold, wet winter mornings. We let him log in from home until 10 on really damp days and his absence dropped from nine days to two. Cost us nothing, saved us a fortune. Breathe HR from spreadsheet slog to dashboard delight. Now confession time. I'm not paid by Breathe HR to gush, but I've rolled it out for more than 40 clients and want shoulders physically lower. Why? Because it replaces the need to play sickness statistical detective. If you can say that better than me, please feel free to do so. Let me paint the picture.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Traditional setup An employee rings your mobile at 7.42am. Whilst you're spreading butter on the kid's toast, you scribble Sam stomach bug on the back of an electricity bill. At ten past eight. You transcribe that onto an Excel spreadsheet on your office PC, that is, if you remember to do so. Three weeks later your co-director wants to know who's been off next Friday and you scroll down columns three screens wide, hunting for your colour coding you forgot to apply. Familiar With Breathe, sam opens the mobile app, taps sickness, selects gastro, presses, submit. You receive an instant email and, crucially, so does your line manager. Bradford scores update in real time. If Sam's absences n to the 200 trigger, your inbox politely pings Sam Jones, frequency has reached your amber threshold.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Click here to schedule a meeting. Think of it as Outlook meeting invites, bred with Doctor who's psychic paper. Then there's the calendar overlay, annual leave, sickness, working from home, days, training, all layered into cheerful colours. No more double booking. The only forklift driver because his approved holiday sits on a page two of your A4 wall planner. Breathe ran a huge customer survey last year and discovered the SMEs saved 3.8 hours of admin every single week Over a year. That's nearly 200 working hours, 26 full working days. If you're paying yourself the national minimum wage, that clocks two and a half grand. If you charge clients at consultancy rates, quadruple it. And this, dear listener, is a real kicker. The software costs the rough equivalent of two cappuccinos a week. One of my clients, posture People 12 staff recouped the licence fee in the first month when the system flagged a migraine trend. They swapped harsh strip lighting for daylight LEDs and collective absence dropped by a day per head. That's the crystal ball. You wish you had A Story with Fur.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Ginny's Dog Groomers. I adore a real-world illustration. So meet Ginny. She runs a bijou dog grooming parlour with five groomers all paid the National Living Wage. Dog grooming parlour with five groomers all paid the national living wage. On paper that's £12.21 per hour, just over £91 a day. Ginny's five staff when averaged, chalk up the national 7.86 day figures. That alone empties £3,571 from her wage pot. But grooming is revenue per hour. A schnauzer clip costs £45 and takes about an hour. Across those 7.8 days Ginny waves goodbye to 47 dogs, or £2,115 in turnover. Because the salon is appointment only, she can't squeeze extra pooches in. Next month To keep regulars happy she hires a freelance groomer at £15 an hour. For half the shifts Another £880. Add it up and the total absence hits around £6,500. That swallows 50% of her profit. Worse, every sudden absence means phoning Baxter, the Cocker Spaniel's owner to cancel denting loyalty.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Ginny rolled out Breathe and, more importantly, the habits around it Mandatory return to work, chats, quarterly trend reviews. She learned that Mondays were the biggest problem. She arranged the rota so each grouper worked one Saturday every four weeks and always had the following Monday off. Sick days fell by one per head, saving £835 immediately back to the bottom line plus a calmer diary. The saga of sick-pay Sam Every workplace has a Sam. Sam is lovely. Sam makes a mean Victoria sponge for charity bake sales, but Sam also manages to fall ill a suspicious number of Fridays.

Speaker 1: 15:28

Here's the roadmap I give managers Evidence. First, the Breathe dashboard shows Sam has wrapped up five separate single day absences in three months. Bradford's score is red Chat. Second Sit down informally. Sam. Look, your attendance pattern worries me, are you okay? Anything at work that's feeding this? Anything at work that's feeding this.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Sometimes you unlock a genuine issue. Sam might be caring for his mum every Thursday night and rolling into work shattered and the solution is flexible hours, not working. Occupational health. Third If it could be medical commission, a short form occupational health telephone assessment For about £100, you get clarity.

Speaker 1: 16:21

Formal stage 1. If no underlying condition appears, set clear expectations. Six weeks without further incident Document Offer support Stage 2. Only if Sam slips back. Written warning time scale, potential outcome of dismissal. By this point you'll have medical evidence, meeting minutes and a trail so neat even Sherlock Holmes would applaud. The magic is that most sands improve after stage one, not because you scared them, because you showed you were watching fairly and supportively.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Team spitting excuses from the HR crypt. I promised lighter notes, so let me share three genuine excuses logged with UK managers this year. Number one a dog bit me and I'm traumatised Apparently. Web-footed flashbacks preclude spreadsheets. Number two it's my dog's birthday and he needs a party planner. I am 100% pro-dog, but even I stop short of canine party leave. Number three this is my personal favourite my only pair of work trousers shrank in the wash and I'm worried Zoom could turn risky. If you're screaming internally now, remember humour is a coping strategy. Log the absence accurately, send the return to work form. Try not to picture the duck Wrapping up the hive takeaways. So my busy bees, let's recap in human sentences rather than bullet points.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Sick absence is higher than it's been since the early 2010s and, thanks to the climate, minimum wage every lost day is pricier too. In small firms, even one day feels like pulling the Jenga block from the base of a tower because there's no slack built into the system. Your legal compass is the Equality Act, statutory sick pay rules and good GDPR hygiene. Follow them and the path is well lit. Drift off and you're wading through the nettles of tribunal territory. You can't magic illnesses away, but you can shrink costs of absence by talking early, triggering fairly and using texts that send you an email instead of asking you to channel Mystic Meg.

Speaker 1: 19:00

Breathe HR is my go-to because it roughly saves four hours of people admin every single week. Time you can redeploy into sales strategy or radical thought, an actual lunch break. And perhaps the biggest lesson is cultural. People aren't robots. Create a space where it's safe to admit I'm struggling and you'll reduce both the fake sickie and the genuine six-month burnout. That's a wrap on the Great British City Small Business Edition. If you'd like my downloadable absence cost calculator or a cheeky breathe discount link, buzz over to kunderwoodhrcouk. Next week we'll look at affordable AI tools that won't alienate your recruitment budget. In the meantime, keep your policies short, your conversations kind and your records tidy and, of course, keep buzzing. I've been Kate Underwood. Thank you for lending me your ears.