For our dedicated clinicians, this is never just a job - it is a lifelong, caring career driven by genuine empathy. We view every client not merely as a contract, but as a valued, long-term partner, ensuring your staff and business needs receive the compassionate, deeply personalised support they deserve.
Managing absence isn't just about tracking sick days, it’s about supporting an employee’s wellbeing – while protecting operational productivity. When organisations rely purely on an in-house model, line managers and HR teams often find themselves caught between policy compliance and complex clinical issues. They aren't medical experts, yet they are tasked with navigating complex mental health conditions, long-term physical illnesses, and neurodiversity in the workplace.
By bringing in UKIM as an external Occupational Health provider, you would bridge that gap and gain immediate access to independent medical expertise, objective fitness-to-work assessments, and proactive, reasonable, robust, and clinically justified return-to-work strategies. Whether you choose to handle day-to-day administration internally or fully outsource your case management, having a dedicated Occupational Health service ensures your decisions are legally robust, medically sound, and focused on getting your people back to health and work as safely and swiftly as possible.
You need clear processes, managers who know how to handle absence conversations, access to specialist advice when things become more complicated, and enough time and resources within HR to keep everything moving.
For many employers, that's where things start to get difficult. HR teams are already dealing with recruitment, employee relations, performance, pay and a whole range of day-to-day issues. Adding complex absence cases to the list isn't always easy.
And with the average employee estimated to take 9.4 sick days a year, at an estimated cost of £3,000 (CIPD) - plus Statutory Sick Pay payable from the first day of sickness - the cost of absence starts to mount as soon as someone is off work.
None of this means that managing absence in-house is the wrong approach. For many organisations, it works perfectly well. The important thing is having the people, processes and expertise to manage it consistently.
When absence is managed internally, your HR team takes responsibility for the policy, processes, records and more complex cases. Line managers usually deal with the day-to-day relationship with employees who are off sick.
That can work well if you have:
There are some obvious advantages to keeping things in-house.
Your managers know their teams and your HR team understands the organisation, its culture and how things work from day to day. You also keep control of the process and don't need to pay for external support every time someone takes a few days off.
The problems tend to appear when an absence becomes more complicated, and / or your internal resources are already stretched. HR teams are often juggling recruitment, employee relations, performance issues, pay, policy updates and employment legislation.
When several long-term or complex absence cases land at the same time, there may simply not be enough time to give each one the attention it needs.
One manager might make an early Occupational Health referral, while another waits several weeks. One might keep in regular contact with an employee, while another avoids making contact because they're unsure what they can reasonably ask.
ACAS makes a distinction between managing long-term absence and dealing with repeated short-term absence. In practice, though, applying the right approach consistently takes time, training and confidence.
There can be legal implications too. If an absence policy isn't applied consistently, an employer could face risks around unfair dismissal. Where an employee has an underlying health condition that may amount to a disability, there are also responsibilities under the Equality Act.
Outsourcing doesn't mean handing your employees over to somebody else. You retain responsibility for decisions and the employment relationship. What we’re bringing in is additional expertise, whether that's an Occupational Health assessment, clinical advice or more structured case management.
And outsourcing doesn't have to mean outsourcing everything. Some clients come to UKIM purely for Occupational Health assessments and keep the rest of their absence process in-house. Others use our services for case management, employee contact, management advice and return-to-work planning.
There's also a middle ground, where we work alongside your HR team and support them with the cases that need additional expertise. This can be particularly useful when an absence involves mental health, musculoskeletal conditions or other complex health issues. These aren't always straightforward situations for a line manager or HR generalist to navigate, and general HR guidance isn't a substitute for clinical advice.
Earlier intervention
When a complex absence continues without clinical input, it can become harder to understand what is preventing someone from returning to work. An Occupational Health assessment can help clarify the situation and identify practical steps that might support a return. That could include adjustments to someone's role, working hours or duties, or a phased return.
It's not about trying to get someone back to work before they're ready. It's about understanding what they can do and what support might make a return possible.
More consistent case management
We can give your managers and HR team a consistent process to follow, regardless of the department or location they're working in. That can be particularly useful in larger organisations, where absence may be managed by dozens of line managers with different levels of experience. It can also help where there is a lot of management turnover or teams are spread across different sites.
Access to clinical expertise
This is one of the main reasons organisations use Occupational Health. Our Occupational Health professionals can look at how an employee's health affects their ability to work and provide advice on issues such as reasonable adjustments, phased returns, fitness for work and the functional impact of a particular condition.
That gives your managers something much more useful than having to read general guidance and make a judgement without clinical input.
It's also worth remembering that employees may be waiting months for NHS treatment for some musculoskeletal and mental health conditions. An Occupational Health assessment doesn't require a GP referral or a diagnosis, so it can provide practical workplace advice while someone is waiting for treatment elsewhere.
External support isn't automatically the answer, either. The service needs to work properly alongside your existing HR and management processes. If the handover isn't clear, an employee can end up feeling as though they're being passed from one person to another rather than properly supported.
Managers also need to know what happens after an assessment. Who makes the referral? Who talks to the employee? Who implements any recommended adjustments? Who keeps the case moving?
With UKIM., those responsibilities will be clear from the start.
Cost is another consideration. The price of an external service needs to be looked at alongside the potential cost of longer absences, delayed intervention and the time your HR and management teams spend dealing with complex cases.
For many organisations, it doesn't have to be an either/or decision. A hybrid approach allows you to keep the employee relationship and day-to-day management in-house, while bringing in specialist support when a case needs it. HR can set the policy and oversee the process, while managers continue to work directly with their employees. We can then step in with Occupational Health assessments, clinical advice or case management when things become more complicated. A typical split might look something like this:
|
Responsibility |
In-house |
UKIM support |
|
Absence policy |
Primary |
Advice if needed |
|
Day-to-day manager contact |
Primary |
Guidance |
|
Recording and monitoring absence |
Primary |
Reporting support |
|
Return-to-work conversations |
Primary |
Specialist advice where needed |
|
Occupational Health assessment |
Primary |
|
|
Complex case management |
Shared |
Primary |
|
Workplace adjustment advice |
Shared |
Primary |
|
Rehabilitation planning |
Shared |
Primary |
|
Absence data analysis |
Primary |
Reporting support |
|
Manager training |
Shared |
Specialist input |
The exact balance will depend on the size of your organisation, your internal resources and the type of support you need. The important thing is that managers don't lose that direct relationship with their teams. They simply have somewhere to turn when a case involves prolonged absence, complex health issues or clinical questions that sit outside their own expertise.
There's no particular size of organisation that needs external absence support. A small employer might need it because there's nobody internally with specialist Occupational Health knowledge. A larger employer might need it because absence is being managed by dozens of managers across different departments and locations.
It may be worth looking at external support if:
HR is spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with absence
Managers aren't confident having sickness conversations, particularly around mental health or long-term conditions
Absence levels are increasing or more cases are becoming long-term
Employees are returning to work and then going off sick again
Occupational Health referrals are being delayed or handled differently by different managers
Managers are applying the absence policy inconsistently
You're dealing with more complex MSK, mental health or multi-condition cases than your HR team is equipped to handle
Your workforce has grown faster than your HR infrastructure
You don't need to tick every box. If one or more of these sound familiar, then some additional support could take pressure off your HR team and managers.
Price is obviously part of the decision, but it shouldn't be the only thing you look at. Think about what you really need a third-party provider to do and how their service will fit into the way your organisation already manages absence.
It's worth making sure your provider is SEQOHS-accredited (we’re pleased to say that UKIM are). SEQOHS (Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service) is recognised by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine and provides an independent quality benchmark for Occupational Health services in the UK. It's a useful standard to look for, although accreditation alone doesn't tell you everything about how a provider will work with your organisation.
Then ask some practical questions.
How quickly can you arrange an assessment?
If someone has already been absent for several weeks, waiting several more weeks for an assessment isn't ideal. Find out what the provider's typical waiting times are and whether they can accommodate urgent cases.
What do your reports look like?
Our reports give managers something they can actually work with. That might mean recommendations around duties, hours, adjustments or a phased return. It might also mean making it clear that an employee isn't currently fit to return.
How do you deal with complex cases?
We offer clinical expertise for mental health, MSK conditions, long-term illness and cases where disability under the Equality Act 2010 may be a consideration.
What data and reporting will we receive?
Good absence management isn't just about dealing with individual employees. Over time, the data we provide will help you understand whether there are patterns within particular teams, departments or types of work. That can help you decide where earlier or more proactive intervention might be useful.
How will you work with our HR team and managers?
This is particularly important. We’ll fit into your existing processes rather than create a completely separate system that managers have to learn. Your team will know when to refer, what information to provide, what happens after an assessment and who is responsible for each part of the process.
UKIM provides absence management, Occupational Health assessments, case management, rehabilitation and return-to-work support to employers across the UK.
With more than 4,000 clinicians and therapists and over 800 treatment venues nationwide, most employees have access to a face-to-face assessment within four miles of their location. That can be particularly useful for organisations with employees spread across different sites or working remotely.
UKIM works with organisations of all sizes. Some need occasional specialist advice for individual cases, while others use a more comprehensive case management service.
If your HR team is dealing with cases that need clinical input they don't have internally, or your managers aren't confident with the absence conversations they're expected to have, UKIM can help you review your current approach and identify where additional support could be useful.
Call us on 0191 512 8220 or use the form below to get started.
What's the difference between absence management and Occupational Health?
Absence management covers the policies, processes and case management involved in dealing with employee sickness. This includes recording absence, monitoring it, deciding when a return-to-work conversation is needed and identifying when an Occupational Health referral may be appropriate.
Occupational Health is the clinical specialism that looks at the relationship between an employee's health and their ability to work. The two work closely together, but they're not the same thing. You can manage absence without Occupational Health input, but more complex cases can be much harder to navigate without appropriate clinical advice.
Is it cheaper to manage absence in-house?
It depends on your organisation and the resources you already have. If your HR team has enough capacity and training to manage absence consistently and deal with cases early, keeping things in-house may be cost-effective. But if absences are becoming longer, employees are struggling to return to work or HR is spending a lot of time dealing with cases that need specialist knowledge, the cost of managing everything internally can start to look quite different.
It's worth considering the full cost, including management time, prolonged absence and the potential consequences of delayed or inconsistent decisions, rather than looking only at the cost of an external service.
When should an employee be referred to Occupational Health?
You can find our recommendations about Occupational Health referrals here.
Does outsourcing absence management mean giving up control of employee cases?
No. You remain the employer and are responsible for decisions and the employment relationship throughout. We provide clinical expertise, structured case management and management advice, while your HR team and line managers continue to manage their responsibilities and work directly with the employee.