How to manage sickness absence and record it on Business World

The steps on how to manage sickness or unplanned absence and how to record each stage on Business World.

As a manager you'll need to record on Business World:

when your employee phones in sick and what they tell you
any further phone contact you have during the period of sickness and what they tell you
the start date of the sickness and reason for sickness
if the period of sickness is more than 7 days, you can upload their fit note
the end date of the sickness
a return to work meeting, this helps you to understand if your employee needs and additional support - there is no longer a separate self-certificate form for the employee to complete, this is now in Business World as part of the return to work meeting.

If your employee has reached any absence review points, you'll need to have a review meeting and record the details on Business World.

How to input absence on Business World

Read the guidance about how to record absence in Business World. [683KB]

We recommend that managers watch the Unplanned Absence training on iLearn. This course is broken down into short parts so that you can watch the step you need or see the whole process from beginning to end.

These videos are also available on this page, so you can see what you need to do in Business World at each stage of the absence process. These are short videos about 2 to 3 minutes long and are useful to show you how to find and complete the forms you need.

How to log in to Business World.

When your employee phones in sick - Absence contact

When an employee is too sick to work, they should contact their manager by phone on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th day of sickness.

In the tabs at the top of your screen: Team Absences > Recording Absences > Absence Contact.

Or go to Main menu > Personnel > Your Employees.

In the Lookup field, type the employee name or employee number, and select them from the list. Then select the Absence Contact tab.

Under 'Contacts from Mar 2024.'

Click the 'Add' button and complete all fields. Click 'Save' button (you may need to scroll done to see it). You'll get a pop-up success message.

You need to repeat these steps for each contact with your employee.

Watch the absence contact video on YouTube.

Input the start date of the absence - Absence entry

You need to input the employee sickness so that:

the sick pay is calculated correctly
we have accurate information about sickness in the council.

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Absences.

Click 'Add', then scroll down to the bottom on the screen to see the fields where you enter details.

Watch the absence entry video on YouTube.

Attaching a fit note

If the absence goes beyond 7 days, the employee must provide a fit note.

The length of sickness is all the days in a row the employee has been sick. This includes days not usually worked, like weekends and bank holidays.

The employee may also be given a fit note before the 8th day of absence. All fit notes should be uploaded to Business World.

The fit note should be renamed with the filename in this format: DDMMYY Employee name fit note. For example, 01112024 Joe Bloggs fit note

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Absences.

At the bottom of the screen click the 'Open' button. The Open Previous absence box will appear.

Type in the Employees name, select them from the list, and click the 'Load' button.

A list of absences will appear. Click the one you want, and it will turn blue.

Then on the top right click the paperclip icon. A pop-up screen will appear. Click 'Add a document'. Select fit note from the dropdown menu, browse to the file you want to select and upload. Then add the valid from and to dates. Click 'save'. Then close the document pop up screen.

Business World will send you an alert when the fit note expires, using the 'valid to' date that you input.

Watch the attaching a fit note video on YouTube.

How to check for any gaps in fit notes is shown in the fit note reporting video on YouTube.

Input the end date of the sickness - Closing a period of absence

When your employee returns to work, you need to input this on Business World.

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Absences.

At the bottom of the screen click the 'Open' button. The Open Previous absence box will appear.
Type in the Employees name, select them from the list, and click the 'Load' button.

A list of absences will appear. Click the one you want, and it will turn blue.

Scroll down to see the details and untick the 'open ended absence' box. In the 'date to' field select the correct last day of absence.

Then click the 'save' button. You'll get a success message in a pop-up.

Watch the closing a period of absence video on YouTube.

Amending an absence

If you need to change the dates of the sickness, you need to fill in the amend absence form to ask for it to be changed. This is because sick pay may already have been processed.

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Amend unplanned absence.

Type in the employee details and select them. You can change the line manager details if you are completing the form on behalf of another manager.

The form is split into sections. You only need to complete the section that you want to amend.

For example, changing the end date of the absence, or the sickness reason.

You only need to use the absence code section if the absence has changed from sickness to industrial injury, or from industrial injury to sickness.

When you've filled in the relevant section. Click the 'submit form' button.

The form will then be sent to the HR Employee Services Transactional Team. When they have made the amendments, you'll get told by a Business World alert.

Watch the amending absence video on YouTube.

Return to work interview - Return to work form

Looking at the absence history

Before the return to work meeting the manager should look at the previous absence history in Business World.

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Absences.

At the bottom of the screen click the 'Open' button.

At the bottom of the screen click the 'Open' button. The Open Previous absence box will appear.

Type in the Employees name, select them from the list, and click the 'Load' button.

You can see if the employee has hit an absence review point by looking at the number of absences and the number of days.

Completing the return to work form

You should have a return to work meeting, in person or over Teams, when the employee returns from absence.

The manager fills in the form based on what is discussed.

Or go to Main menu > Forms > Absence - Return to Work

When the form opens, the form ID will auto populate as 'NEW' - you should not change this.

Read the information tab.

Complete all the fields on the Return to Work tab.

Then click 'Submit'.

Employee self-certification

The employee then looks at the form in Business World and either approves the form or declines it with comments.

If the absence is 7 days or less, the employee needs to complete the declaration tab to self-certify that they were sick.

Watch the return to work video on YouTube.

Managing absence review form

If an employee reaches an absence review point, you need to have an Absence Review meeting with them and input the details of the meeting on business World.

Or go to Main menu > Your employment > Absence Review.

When the form opens, the form ID will auto populate as 'NEW' - you should not change this.

Read the information tab, then complete all the relevant sections.

Save as draft and take a note of the form ID so that you can access it later. The form ID will be shown in the 'success' pop up.

Saving as draft allows you to:

attach documents relating to the absence
record any follow up meetings in the 'Follow Up Meetings' tab
complete any actions and note them on the form
write to your employee if they are still absent so that you can confirm the meeting details and outcomes, which may need changes when the employee reviews them.

To access a saved form

Forms > Managing Absence Review.
When the form opens, in the Form ID field delete 'NEW'. Out in the form ID that you took a note of and select it from the list.

You can then complete the fields and tabs you need. Make sure you complete all the mandatory fields.
To submit the form, at the bottom click the 'Submit form' button. You'll get a 'Success' pop up and the form will be sent to your employee to approve.

Watch the managing absence review video on YouTube.

Managing Absence Appeal form

Or go to Main menu > Forms > Managing Absence Appeal

When the form opens, the form ID will auto populate as 'NEW' - you should not change this.

The form has 5 sections.
Read the Information section, then complete the sections Employee Details and Appeal Details.

At the bottom of the screen click the 'Submit form' button. You'll get a 'Success' pop up and the form will be sent to your employee to approve or decline.

If the employee rejects the appeal, you'll need to complete the Appeal Board and Tribunal sections, and then submit the form.

Watch the managing absence appeal video on YouTube.

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