As a company it is unrealistic to imagine that every single one of your employees is going to remain perfectly healthy every day of the year. So what do you do when you have employees that get sick? Do you allow them to take time off paid to rest and get well or do expect that they will come in regardless?
Currently the only law in place that deals with sick leave falls under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. This law was passed and put in place by President Bill Clinton. It guarantees employees that have worked 1,250 hours within the previous 12 months of an establishment that employs 50 people or more up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave. This leave can be used for personal health or other family related emergencies. As a company this can be all the leave that you offer to your employees.
Currently Senator Ted Kennedy has proposed a bill that requires businesses with 15 employees or more to provide 7 days of paid sick leave to employees. The bill also stipulates that business must allow employees to roll over unused sick days to the next year as long as it doesn’t exceed the 7 day guarantee.If enacted into law this would make a 7 day paid sick leave mandated.
Research has been done to look into the differences in attitudes of employees when provided the benefits of paid versus unpaid sick leave. Employees that were provided with the benefit of paid sick leave were found to have contradicting viewpoints. Some employees felt they were under pressure to use or lose their benefit. Others felt a relief knowing that if they needed the time off they could rely on it being there without the pressure of not losing income. Ways in which to help eliminate the feeling of frustration and pressure is to provide a mechanism for employees to continue to accrue their leave.
Other studies have found that the more leave you provide to employees the healthier your staff is. This is found evident in three ways. If employees are provided with ample time to take off when they are sick (and it is paid) they will stay home when they are sick instead of coming to work sick and spreading infectious germs to everyone else. In addition your labor costs increase because they are less productive. If you provide leave but leave it unpaid employees still attempt to come into work while sick because of the stress of staying home and losing income. Providing paid leave provides a sense of ease and reduces stress levels for employees. Finally, if employees are provided with time off to visit doctor’s your company can receive advance warning for epidemics or outbreaks.
So as you decide upon the number of sick days to provide for your employees there are a few approaches. You can provide a specific set amount like 7 days per year, or you can provide a tiered structure increasing days with years of service.For smaller businesses you might provide a smaller amount of time off. Larger corporations can afford to provide longer durations. 7 – 14 days is an average amount of time provided to employees per year.
As you determine how much time to provide to your employees for time off due to illness, keep in mind that the laws that are currently in place and the benefits associated with providing this advantage. Employees with more time off have an increased satisfaction with their and lower stress levels. Productivity increases during the times they are not ill. The remainder of your staff stays healthier as well.