Now a good time to set policy

NEW YORK — At the checkout counter of a Manhattan office supply store, there is a rack stocked with disinfectant spray, throat lozenges, tissues and Vitamin C supplements, reminders to small-business owners that a new season, the flu season, is upon us.

Flu season inevitably means employee absences. And so the beginning of the year is a good time for company owners to think about their policy not just for sick time, but time off in general.

Many business owners might not think about a policy for sick or medical days until an employee starts taking a lot of time off. Or when a prospective worker asks, "How much sick time do you give?"

Before formulating a policy, owners should be aware that they're not required under federal or most state laws to grant employees paid time off when they're sick, but the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, known as the FMLA, might require that companies give workers unpaid sick leave. However, not granting any paid sick time at all is probably a bad idea, not only is it a morale-buster, it will make it harder to recruit good workers.

Many owners trying to come up with a sick time policy might not be sure how many days to give staffers.

Rick Gibbs, a senior human resources specialist with Administaff, a Houston-based human resources outsourcing company, said owners need to decide "how many days a year can they afford not to have people working from a productivity standpoint."

But they also need to be sure that their policies will make them competitive with other employers in the same industry and community. "Ask around other business owners what they typically offer," Gibbs said.

He also noted that typically, companies link sick time to tenure: The longer workers have been with a business, the more time they are likely to get.

Sick time gets more complicated when employees use up their allotment. Should the boss dock their pay? Make them dip into vacation time or personal days? Borrow from next year? Or should the owner just shrug and keep paying them?

This can be a thorny issue, but generally, the advice from human resources consultants and small business owners alike is to be flexible, but also fair to the entire staff. Keep in mind that docking an employee's pay may come across as punishment and could motivate a good staffer to leave.

One solution that many companies are turning to is to grant employees paid time off that in effect lumps together sick time, personal days and vacation.

At LVM Group Inc., a New York-based public relations firm, "we've had a system whereby you can be sick or you can take a personal day or you can take vacation and we allotted X number of days for each," President David Grant said.

One advantage of paid time off that doesn't differentiate between sick, personal or vacation days is that no one needs to keep track of why an employee is taking a day off.