Creating a sick leave policy

Most employers do not want to create a sick leave policy because they are afraid that their employees are going to take advantage of it. Employers are afraid that if they provide some kind of benefit, such as paid sick leave, that employees are going to call in sick more often. With employers feeling this way what usually happens is that they do not offer paid sick leave or any other type of sick benefits. They do that because they think that their employees will call in less often if they have to miss work and not get paid for it, which means they will only call in sick when it is absolutely necessary. Regardless of how you feel about paid sick leave you should still have a sick leave policy in place that way your employees know what they can and can't do when it comes to taking time off for being sick.

The first thing that you want to keep in mind about creating a sick policy is that you are not required by law to provide your employees with any paid time off, although this is starting to change. Some states are starting to pass laws that require you to give your employees sick days based on the number of hours that they are working. For example, for every 30 hours an employee works they get one hour of paid sick leave. In most states it is still up to you if you want to pay your employees for any time off that they take.

When creating your sick policies another thing you want to keep in mind is that you need to include exactly what you expect from your employees in the policy. This means that you are going to need to spell out exactly what they can and can't do when it comes to taking time off. You also want to make sure that they are clear about the difference between sick leave and vacation. The policy will need to include information on whether or not they are getting paid for any sick time that they take off, what they have to do in order to take sick leave, whether they have to provide a doctor's note, etc. Something else that you need to keep in mind when you are creating your sick leave policy is the Family and Medical Leave Act because it might apply to your business. If it does it needs to be taken into account when creating your sick leave policy.

Not only do you want the employees to know what they can expect when they are going to take sick leave, but you also want to include what is going to happen if they abuse the sick leave policy. You are going to need to include any disciplinary measures that you are going to take if the sick policy is abused or if the rules aren't followed. This can include write ups, verbal warnings, termination, whatever you deem appropriate for the offense. You will also need to include what is going to happen the first time they abuse the policy, the second time that they abuse, etc. Be clear about what you expect from your employees so that it will help lower the chance of people abusing the sick leave policy.

Most importantly you are going to need to ensure that you follow through with what you have outlined in your sick policy. This means that you are going to want to make sure that the employees are doing what is required of them to take the sick leave and then you are going to want to make sure that if anybody is abusing the policy that you are following up in the correct manner.