Sickness absence & management referral

Our Management Referral Service supports managers in making informed decisions by providing clear occupational health advice, reasonable adjustments, and practical guidance.

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Sickness absence & management referral

Supporting Effective Employee Management

Having access to a Management Referral Service enables you to manage employees more effectively and take a constructive, supportive approach to helping them return to work following periods of absence.

What Is a Management Referral?

A management referral occurs when an employer asks an employee to attend an appointment with a member of the Occupational Health team. The clinician then provides a report to the manager to inform and support management decisions.

Clear Medical Insight and Practical Guidance

The medical report provides a clear prognosis of the employee’s health condition, advice on treatment options, and recommendations for reasonable adjustments that may support a faster and more sustainable return to work.

Actionable Advice for Managers

Our reports deliver clear, unambiguous, actionable advice to help managers confidently support employees and manage their return to work.

Our sickness absence and management referral service is Ideal for:

Making reasonable adjustments where an employee may require them
Long term sickness absence
Repeated short term sickness absence
Occupational illness that may have been caused by work
Returning to work after illness or injury
Supporting an employee with substance misuse
Following an accident or illness at work
Underperformance, where an underlying medical condition is suspected
Advice on meeting the Equality Act 2010
Ill health retirement
Employer liability claims

Get in touch to discuss sickness absence & management referral

Sugarman Occupational Health

Sales and Admin Team

How a Management Referral Works in 4 Simple Steps:

Step 1: Your manager and employee speak and agree to make an OH referral

It’s important to keep an open and supportive dialogue with your employees. Managers may need advice on how best to support a colleague, and ensuring the employee understands the context is important.

Step 2: Manager makes a referral

Using our online portal, your manager makes a referral. We’ll ask them whether there are any specific questions they’d like us to answer as part of our report.

Step 3: We’ll arrange an appointment with your employee

It’s important the time works for them as well as for you, so we’ll reach out to make an appointment. Following the appointment, we’ll write a report – and we’ll check your employee is happy for us to share any information with you as part of this.

Step 4: We’ll send our report

After the appointment, we’ll send you our report and close your referral.

Ready to make a referral?

Fill in your details below and one of our team will get back to you quickly with your requirements and next steps.

It’s widely accepted that a health workforce is critical to the success of your business

Sickness absence costs you up to £503 per year, per employee and many employers are now implementing occupational health programmes to help reduce the costs and support sustainable returns to work.

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FAQs

How quickly can you support us?

We have the capacity to mobilise services to meet your timescales, whatever they are. As soon as we understand what your needs are, we’ll deploy clinicians to the benefit of your business and workforce.

What’s the commitment once I work with you?

Sugarman is committed to establishing positive, transparent working relationships with our clients from the outset to provide a high-quality, bespoke OH service. Sugarman is committed to working with the client to achieve increased employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity, with a focus on prevention and value for money. This will promote a reduction in issues such as sickness absence, work-related ill health, presenteeism, litigation claims etc.

How will you keep my employee’s information safe?

Our systems comply with the rules and regulations for keeping your information safe, and we pride ourselves on our care and attention to doing this. We’re also reviewed annually as part of our accreditations.

Do you offer services on a pay as you go basis?

You can purchase our services on a pay as you go basis, or purchase an in-house full occupational health service or anything in between. Our simple pricing structure enables you to build the package, and level of commitment, that works for your business.

How does having an OH report help me as an employer?

When an employee is struggling with their physical or mental health
Make the right reasonable adjustments for disabled people at work
When an employee has been off sick for a long time or is returning to work after sickness absence
Reduce the amount of time people need to take off sick
Keep to other health and safety regulations
Employers can rely on occupational health reports and we will work with you to seek clarification and ask appropriate questions where necessary.

Can I refer colleagues to you if they don’t want to be referred?

We will also work together and suggest that employers should have an occupational health policy that outlines when an occupational health referral or assessment can be made, how, where, and by whom it’s carried out, what both the employer and employee need to do, and what the next steps are.