It’s the second week of December. Three people are off with the same bug, one has rung in sick for the fourth Monday this term, and your team leader is quietly wondering whether anyone is going to take the call about Friday’s deadline.
Winter does this to every workplace. This year it comes with a rule change that makes it more expensive.
What changed
From April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first day of sickness absence. The old three-day waiting period has gone, and the lower earnings limit no longer decides who qualifies. More people are covered, and every absence costs something from the start.
If you’ve written your sickness policy around the idea that the first few days are unpaid, it needs rewriting. Check your current SSP rate against the government’s guidance, because it moves each April.
Why it changes behaviour
Day-one SSP doesn’t mean more people will be off. It does mean you can no longer ignore short, frequent absence on the grounds that it costs you nothing. And it makes consistency more important, because a pattern of short absences that you tolerate for one person and challenge for another is how grievances and discrimination claims begin.
Build a process, not a reaction
The employers who cope best with winter absence aren’t the strictest. They’re the most consistent.
Make reporting simple and clear. Who do people ring, by what time, and what do you ask? Keep it factual and respectful. You need to know when they expect to return, whether anything is time-critical, and whether they’ve been to a doctor if it’s a longer stretch.
Hold a return to work conversation every time, however short the absence. Five minutes is enough. Ask how they are, check they’re fit to be back, and note anything you could help with. It builds a record, spots patterns early, and tells people that absence is noticed without turning it into an interrogation.
Use triggers sensibly. Many employers use a trigger point, such as a set number of absences or a Bradford Factor score, to prompt a conversation. A trigger should start a conversation, not end a career. Always ask what’s behind the pattern before deciding what to do.
The part that trips people up
Not every absence is just a cold. Repeated short absences can be linked to a long-term condition, a mental health issue, caring responsibilities, or a disability. If an employee may be disabled under the Equality Act, you have a duty to consider reasonable adjustments, and treating them as a “disciplinary problem” can turn a manageable situation into a discrimination claim.
Pregnancy-related absence, absence linked to a disability, and absence related to a protected characteristic need particular care, and often shouldn’t be counted in your trigger calculations at all.
When it moves from short-term to long-term
If someone’s absence is becoming prolonged, shift gears early. Make contact, keep it supportive, consider occupational health, and talk about what a return might look like. Leaving it for weeks and then sending a formal capability letter is the route to a bad outcome for everyone.
For smaller employers and charities
Cover is the real pressure. In a team of six, three people off is a crisis. It’s worth thinking now about who can step in, what can wait, and how you’ll avoid putting unfair pressure on the people who are still in.
Where we come in
King HR Advisory helps employers in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and beyond to build absence processes that are fair, consistent and defensible, from rewriting your sickness policy to supporting you through a live long-term absence case. Book a discovery call if you’d like a second pair of eyes before the winter really bites.