Using SART - Employee Absence Recording and Reporting

Subsections in this page cover:

  1. Introduction
  2. Description of the Absence Recording form data fields
  3. Mandatory or required fields
  4. Sickness absence cause data fields
  5. Sickness absence cause coding
  6. Work-related cause information
  7. Recording completed for this absence episode?
  8. Employee absence reports

Introduction

Individual absence record details are made available via the employee record of the person to whom they belong. This is accessed from the main menu via the Employees & Absence Recording button.

Absence data is clearly sensitive information and should only be available to approved personnel. It should be noted that the ability to access absence records requires the appropriate security access. Further details on the security levels employed by SART, and their management, are given here.

Having opened an Employee Absence Record from the Employee form the absence recording form will be available for adding and editing absence data, as shown in the next illustration. This includes all absence types, not only sickness absence. The form illustrated shows an entry for holiday absence. Note that the fields for illness details are disabled (or greyed-out) as this is not a sickness type absence.

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As for all forms in SART, Tooltips are available for fields by hovering the mouse cursor over them.

 

Description of the Absence Recording form data fields

Mandatory (ie required) fields are highlighted by being outlined in colour and underlined. In this case though, because the recording of a sickness absence episode will usually be spread out over time, so that not all data will be available immediately, only one field - Start Date - is mandatory when the record is first created.

The other mandatory fields (prompts in red) are less likely to be known or confirmed until the employee returns to work. Therefore they are are only required when recording is finished, and the record has been marked by the user as completed (by checking the recording completed tick box).

Mandatory data for sickness absence cause - If this is a sickness absence (as opposed to other absence type) record, it is mandatory to provide sufficient data on the cause. This is provided by selecting a level one cause in the Cause level 1 field, OR, if a suitable code cannot be provided, by adding a text description of the cause in the Describe Sickness Absence Cause field. Both fields can be provided in any case - but at least one of them must be provided for final record completion checks, otherwise a warning will be issued to the user.

On completion of recording for the Absence episode the user must check the Recording completed - mark this absence as closed field to signify positively that this episode is closed. The other mandatory fields will be checked for at this point.

All date fields can be edited by using standard numeric entry of dates (eg 12/02/2003), the pop-up calendar or by increasing or decreasing an existing date a day at a time, using the plus (+) or minus (-) keys on the keyboard when the cursor is located in a date field.

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Start Date - this is a mandatory field for all records.

All date fields can be edited by using standard numeric entry of dates (eg 12/02/2003), the pop-up calendar or by increasing or decreasing an existing date a day at a time, using the plus (+) or minus (-) keys on the keyboard when the cursor is located in a date field.

Expected return date - is optional, but can be used to enter an indicative date for return given by the employee when first reporting an absence via phone, letter certificate, etc.

Actual return date - (mandatory for final record completion checks). It may be that this cannot be known and entered for days, weeks or months after the absence record is first created, depending on the period of absence and the information supplied by the absentee.

Estimated weekdays (M-F) absent - This is calculated by the system and cannot be edited by the user. When the Actual Return Date is entered, the estimated weekdays absent between the two dates is shown. This is helpful to working out days off for standard weekday workers, however this may not be an accurate reflection of the actual working days absent if the person is involved in, for example, other shift patterns or weekend work. To account for all of the variation in the nature of absences the true number of days absent  needs to be entered by the user in the Work days absent field.

Absence type - (mandatory for final record completion checks). Choose the type from the drop-down list available.

Work days absent - (mandatory for final record completion checks). Enter here the true total number of days actually absent. This can include part day, expressed in decimal parts, eg one and a half days off should be entered as 1.5.

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Sickness absence cause recording

Where the Absence type chosen is sickness absence additional fields on the form become available in the boxed region Sickness absence details for more data to be added about the cause of the sickness or illness, as and when these items become available. Entry of these may possibly be staged over time: for example  details may await the return to work of the employee, or information from a medical certificate sent in by the employee or GP. This may possibly be some considerable time after the absence was first reported, and the absence record first created.

An example of a sickness absence record, with these additional aspects active on the form is shown below.

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Mandatory data for sickness absence cause - If this is a sickness absence (as opposed to other absence type) record, it is mandatory to provide sufficient data on the cause. This is provided by selecting a level one cause in the Cause level 1 field, OR, if a suitable code cannot be provided, by adding a text description of the cause in the Describe Sickness Absence Cause field. Both fields can be provided in any case - but at least one of them must be provided for final record completion checks, otherwise a warning will be issued to the user.

Sickness Absence Cause Coding

For the purposes of the SART and for use elsewhere, a sickness absence cause classification scheme has been devised by IOM for the HSE. This relates to the common causes of sickness and absence as well as having links to other recognised sickness coding schemes, ie the International classification of Disease (ICD). There are two levels coding available in this scheme. Further information on the background and derivation of this scheme is available here.

The two levels are recorded in Cause level 1 and Cause level 2. At least Cause level 1 should be specified, Cause level 2 is optional. These codes can be set individually using the drop-down lists available or by searching for a key word or phrase via the search (binoculars) button.

Cause level 1 - (mandatory for final record completion checks, if no cause description is otherwise given)

To set Cause Level 1 use the drop-down list or use the search (binoculars) button to search through existing codes and their descriptions as illustrated in the next figure.

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Clicking on Search results in the next screen, where the codes can be selected and entered into the cause code by double-clicking them.

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You should endeavour to enter a Cause level 1 code wherever possible. If no suitable code can be found for a cause, then please describe it in the Describe SA cause description box and set the code in Cause level 1 as Other known causes (nec) - not elsewhere classified.

If the sickness absence cause is simply unknown, then code it as Unknown causes / Not specified at Cause level 1.

Cause level 2 - (Optional) this will be set automatically via the search facility or manually from the drop-down list available. It may be that whilst a Level one code can be specified, level two cannot. In this case the Level 2 code may be left blank or set to Not specified.

Describe SA cause - (Optional if Cause level 1 code has been specified; but Mandatory if Cause level 1 is not specified. Useful additional information on the cause may be added here in any case.

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Work-related cause information

Additional guidance information has been produced for the SART that provides information on work related caused of ill health. Where a potentially work-related sickness cause has been specified the availability of this guidance information material will be highlighted by the appearance of the Guidance Information button ScreenShot018 next to the cause data. Clicking on this icon will open up html guidance on the potentially work-related cause, with links to further SART information and links to related web sites.

Work related? - (mandatory for final record completion checks) this will default to 'don't know' for new records, and should be changed to 'yes' 'maybe' or 'no', where this can be established.

Absence a result of accident at work? - (mandatory for final record completion checks) this will default to 'don't know' for new records, and should be changed to 'yes' or 'no' where this can be established.

SA referred on to - (optional) Free-text field. To whom (if anyone at all) was the sickness absence referred? (eg occupational physician, nurse, health and safety officer, etc).

RIDDOR reportable - (mandatory for final record completion checks). Is this absence cause RIDDOR reportable? Check here if so. The adjacent information button ScreenShot018 will give further information on the RIDDOR scheme with links to the official RIDDOR web site.

Source of SA cause info - (Not mandatory). Who provided the information on this sickness absence episode? Select the source from the drop-down list available.

Notes on Absence - (Not mandatory). Use this box to add free-text notes and further information about this absence episode, as required.

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Recording completed for this absence episode? - (mandatory for final record completion checks)

This check box must be completed to signify that data recording is completed and that this absence episode is closed. If necessary the record can be opened and re-edited later. If this field is not checked absence days will be accumulated for open, as opposed to closed, absence episodes in reports and statistics

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Employee absence reports

The Absence Report Command Bar, shown below, is used to manage and run absence reports for the current employee. In addition, using the Main button will open up the main report generator for all employees for all report types, which is further described here.

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Select Current to produce a one-page report of the employee's currently displayed absence record.


The button Summarised will produce a report summarising absence across several or all absence records for the current employee. A pop-up form prompts for the selection of all records, or those within a given date range, as shown below.

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Selecting Trigger Levels opens a form that allows the setting and testing of trigger action levels for employees. The use of trigger action levels and testing in sickness absence management is more fully described here. More information on setting trigger levels and running them in the SART database is given here.

The last button Main, opens up the Report Generator form for the Organisation as a whole - for all employees and the complete set of report types. This function is also available from the main menu and is fully described here.

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