Managing Long-Term Sickness Absence: A Guide for Small Employers in South Yorkshire

An employee who's been off sick for weeks, or months, puts a small employer in a genuinely difficult spot: you want to support them properly, you're worried about the impact on the rest of the team, and you're often unsure what you're actually allowed to do — or when. Here's a clear-headed way through it.

Start with genuine, early contact — don't go quiet

The biggest mistake small employers make with long-term sickness is going quiet, either out of awkwardness or a misplaced sense that contacting someone who's off sick is intrusive. Regular, low-pressure contact — a call or message from a manager or you directly, checking in on how they're doing and whether there's anything the business can do — is both the right thing to do and protects you if the situation becomes more formal later.

Understand what you're dealing with

Long-term sickness generally falls into a few categories, and the right approach differs:

• A short-to-medium term recoverable condition (recovering from surgery, a broken bone) — usually straightforward: stay in touch, plan for return, consider a phased return if advised

• A condition that may meet the legal definition of disability under the Equality Act — this triggers a duty to consider reasonable adjustments, and dismissing without properly exploring this is a significant legal risk

• An unclear or worsening prognosis — harder to plan around, and usually where you need the most support and the most patience before considering next steps

Get an occupational health opinion before you decide anything

Don't rely on guesswork or what the employee tells you informally about their own prognosis. An occupational health referral — even a fairly basic one — gives you a professional view on current fitness for work, likely timescales, and whether any adjustments would help a return. This is often the single most useful step you can take, and it protects you if you later need to show you acted on proper information rather than assumption.

Reasonable adjustments aren't optional if disability is in play

If the condition could meet the definition of disability, you have a legal duty to consider reasonable adjustments — a phased return, reduced hours, a change of duties, additional equipment, adjusted targets. "Reasonable" depends on your size and resources as a business, but the duty applies to a five-person company as much as a five-hundred-person one; the bar for what counts as reasonable simply shifts.

Keep proper, dated records throughout

Every contact, every occupational health report, every conversation about adjustments or return-to-work planning should be documented. If this situation eventually needs to move toward considering someone's ongoing employment, the paper trail showing genuine support and consideration is what protects you.

When (and how) to consider next steps

If, after genuine support, occupational health input, and consideration of adjustments, there's still no realistic prospect of a sustainable return, it may become necessary to consider whether the employment can continue. This is a serious step with real legal risk if rushed, and should never be the first move — it comes only after a proper process, usually including:

• A clear paper trail of support offered and considered

• Up-to-date occupational health input specifically addressing prognosis

• A formal meeting where the employee can respond and suggest their own options

• Consideration of ill-health retirement or pension provisions if applicable

• A fair, documented decision-making process — not an ad hoc conversation

The financial pressure is real — but it doesn't remove the process

Small employers often feel long-term sickness absence acutely — covering the work, potentially paying sick pay, the strain on remaining staff. That pressure is understandable, but it doesn't shorten the legal process required, and rushing it because of cost pressure is one of the most common ways small businesses end up facing a costly disability discrimination or unfair dismissal claim.

Getting support with a live case

Long-term sickness cases are rarely straightforward, and the disability discrimination risk in particular catches a lot of well-meaning small employers out. If you're managing one right now, getting advice before you take any formal step — rather than after — is by far the safest approach.