Managing absence

The absence overview for an employee can be found via People → [employee name] → Absence. Here you can see the current status, any required actions for long-term absence and the complete absence history.

Current status

If an employee has been reported sick, you can see here how long the absence has been ongoing and since which date. As long as there is an active sick report, you can update the status via Update status. Via the three dots next to the sick report you can cancel the report if it was created by mistake.

If the employee has not been reported sick, you'll see the message "Not currently absent" and you can register a new sick report via Report absence.

Updating the status

Via Update status you can keep track of the employee's situation as an HR admin or Manager. There are three options:

• Partially recovered: The employee is partially back at work. You enter a recovery percentage — for example 50% means the employee is working half of their normal hours. Heartwork closes the current entry and creates a new one with the entered percentage.
• Fully recovered: The employee is fully back. The absence is closed on the date you enter. The case is closed and will from now on appear in the absence history.
• Worsened: The employee was partially recovered but has fully dropped out again. Heartwork closes the partial recovery entry and registers a new full sick report.

Relapse within 4 weeks

If an employee reports sick within 4 weeks of a previous absence case being closed, that case is automatically reopened. Heartwork treats this as a relapse of the same absence, not a new case. The milestones are recalculated based on the original start date.

Long-term absence

After 14 calendar days, an absence case is automatically considered long-term. You'll then see the message "This absence is now considered long-term" and Heartwork automatically generates a series of required actions — these are the statutory steps that are expected at fixed moments, depending on the country of your company.

For companies in the Netherlands these include:

• Week 6: Problem analysis
• Week 8: Action plan
• Week 42: UWV notification
• Year 1: First-year evaluation
• Week 88: WIA application
• Year 2: End of continued pay obligation

The exact milestones depend on the country of the company.

You always see the next open milestone at the top with the expected date and a description. You can expand the remaining milestones via Show all required actions. Once a milestone has been completed, mark it as done via the checkmark next to it. HR admins and Managers receive a notification when a milestone is due within 7 days or has already been passed.

Absence history

Below the current status you'll find an overview of all closed absence cases. Per case you can see the start and end date and the total number of calendar days. Click on a case to view the full timeline, including any partial recovery periods.

Updated on: 05/05/2026