This can be attributed to smaller businesses facing the first winter with relaxed COVID guidelines, resulting in an increased spread of colds, flu and COVID.

Following this rise in sick leave, Lawyers Weekly spoke to two smaller firms to see how they had coped — or if they had been impacted by cold and flu season at all.

Travis Schultz & Partners chief executive Kelly Phelps said that like many SME businesses, TSP experienced its “highest levels” of sick leave in June, July and August this year since the firm first opened in 2018.

“Our records show that the percentage of staff off work due to COVID or other illnesses is over double what it was the same time last year,” she said.

“We know our team will always go above and beyond for their clients and their fellow team members, so we are trying our best to provide adequate resources thereby creating extra capacity to help shoulder the load.”

To manage this, recruitment has been a big focus for the firm over the course of 2022, as well as compromising in terms of expediency, timeliness and attentiveness.

“We want our team to know that they are supported and we actively encourage a team approach to ensure that client expectations are exceeded, despite the challenges,” Ms Phelps added.

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“Team design has also played a part — our structure and team philosophy has helped. Having a team of support rather than legal assistants dedicated to individual professional staff has meant that we can allocate resources wherever there is a need, and ensure consistency of approach even when we have staff absent.

“We have had to be flexible with work from home arrangements and have encouraged staff to take a cautious approach in isolating if they are concerned they are becoming unwell.”

In contrast, Eve Smith, partner at Umbrella Family Law, said that the firm “hasn’t really noticed” a sick leave epidemic.

“We have a hybrid working environment where staff work from home four days a week and come into the office one day a week. Even with a sniffle staff feel able to continue to work from home rather than taking leave, however in my view if they were expected to work full time in the office they would opt for a sick day with a sniffle,” she said.  

“Our policy is if they have COVID-type symptoms, staff should not come into the office. We also offer staff a paid mental health day once per month in addition to their leave entitlements which staff tend to use if they are feeling overwhelmed or have a health appointment which again negates the need for sick leave.” 

In terms of how firms who are struggling with an increased amount of sick leave can manage it moving forward, Ms Phelps said that giving staff extra leeway to support their health and wellbeing will result in better work quality — and a better working environment.

“SME firms need to prioritise human resources by providing a structure that allows for overflow capacity and is culture centred on teamwork. Before COVID, there was much focus on creating leaner organisations, however recent times have shown that this leaves businesses — particularly SMEs — vulnerable and at risk when the unexpected occurs,” she said.

“A multi-skilled workforce will also play a part in safeguarding SME firms in the future, as will thoughtful team design and remote working practices. If client satisfaction and expediency is key, then firms will need to accept a degree of cost ineffectiveness as redundancy is inbuilt to human resource structures.

“If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s to ensure we have a team structure which is both supportive and adaptable. As we navigate our way through the curve balls thrown at the workforce in a post-COVID world, we know that maintaining a positive work environment helps boost employee morale, retention and productivity.”