'Policies need to be modernized to just be more flexible and have more trust built into them'
“There just needs to be more trust.”
So says Natasha D’Cruze, co-lead of people and culture at iQmetrix in Vancouver, in talking about the challenges around sick leave policies and the need for an update.
“Policies are like a box around things but for humans, there’s such a broad spectrum of how someone might be able to show up as their best one day. And so policies need to be modernized to just be more flexible and have more trust built into them.”
At her company, there’s no definition of sick leave, she says.
“A very traditional sick-leave policy would be asking for a doctor’s note after X amount of days, or a process for letting the company know that you’re sick but for us, it’s not about any of those things: we don’t try to make it difficult for people to take what they need to feel well.”
“I do like our approach, I do feel it’s very modernized, and I would like to see more companies taking that trusted approach,” says D’Cruze.
Remote work and sick days: survey
A recent survey conducted by Softworks suggests this is true for a majority of employees, as 73% said they feel workplace policies need to be revised in the new hybrid and remote world.
The survey heard from 614 professionals in HR, finance, IT, operations and general management between May to June, and found that 84% of employees feel they should not be working when sick while 70% said employees should not be contactable if sick.
These results are not surprising, says D’Cruze.
“The sentiment seems to be the same, that employees don’t feel like they can take proper sick days now that remote work has changed the way we work.”
A further challenge? Among respondents, 83% said remote working has made it harder to make a decision about asking for time away from work.
“The crux here is how sick is too sick? And there are many mitigating factors around this: ‘If I have a cough and very few other symptoms, I might decide that I am still able to work. However, if I have the flu and have aches and pains then I am more likely to close the laptop and open the painkillers,’” says Mairead Walsh, chief marketing officer at Softworks in Dublin, Ireland.
The government of Nova Scotia recently introduced changes to when an employer could ask an employee for a doctor’s note when taking sick time.
A further 79% of respondents believe employees feel compelled to work when sick, according to the survey.
“I would imagine there is a bit of a feeling of guilt to take a full day off as even communication has changed with remote work. In some ways, it’s quicker through Slack or through emails versus in-person. Before, you could just go up to someone and talk quickly for five minutes, whereas now with fully remote, there’s a little more disconnection among personal relationships that are built,” says D’Cruze.
With this seeming separation between leaders and employees, the time is right to loosen sick policies and provide more flexibility, says Walsh.
“We know the world of work has changed dramatically and it may take some time for new policies and best practices to emerge around remote working and sick days. However, organizations need to tackle this issue. There needs to be policies in place so that it is not a grey area or employees feel pressured to work when they are genuinely ill.”
Corporate culture and sick leaves
Not surprisingly, almost all (96%) respondents to the Softworks survey felt organizational culture affects employees’ decisions on taking sick days.
“People are feeling like they can’t take a sick day, feeling like their employer doesn’t trust them now that they’re working remotely and they feel that they need to log on almost to prove that they’re being productive.”
The downsides to not having people take adequate sick leave are clear, according to Walsh.
“We know from numerous studies and research that continuously working while sick can lead to poor performance, burnout and an increased risk of depression. If organizations want to avoid this, they need to consider how their culture and actions around their employees’ health and wellbeing affect their workers in the longer term.
“Right now is an excellent time and opportunity to re-evaluate sick leave in a way that better supports both organizations and their employees.”
Removing a COVID-era sick-leave policy in Ontario was a “wasted opportunity,” according to one HR professional.
Solutions? Leadership and trust
A big part of the solution around sick days begins at the top, says D’Cruze.
“Employers or leaders in the company need to lead the way and have conversations that reinforce the importance of taking time off, whether it’s for vacation, if you’re feeling unwell, if you’re feeling burnt out — or trying to get people to take time before they get to the place of burnout — and helping people understand that sick time and just needing a personal mental-health break are equally important.”
When enacting such a company-wide change, communications around this need to be in the form a “campaign,” she says.
“Put an update in your company communication channels, whether it’s Teams or Slack or whatever; send it out via email, have it on your Wiki, have it on your HRIS front-page dashboards and places where it can be super accessible and easy to find.”
Besides a company culture reboot, HR professionals also need to adapt, according to D’Cruze.
“For HR, stop making policies for the 1%. If you have confidence in your recruitment practices and your hiring practices, then you should be confident in the people that you have at your organization and, therefore, instead of making policies that are about worst-case scenario, make some about trust because, at the end of the day, you’ve hired great people, and so you trust them.”
