A SIVI absence notification is a message in the Dutch national absence standard with which the HR system passes a sick report, change or recovery report directly to the arbodienst (occupational health service). The health service processes the message automatically and sends back a confirmation per notification: processed, processed with warning or rejected.
Below you can read what such a notification contains, which types of notification there are and where it goes wrong in practice. It is meant for HR and absence coordinators who want to know what happens after a manager reports someone sick.
What SIVI is
SIVI is the Dutch standards organisation for data exchange in the insurance sector. SIVI also maintains the standard with which employers and occupational health services exchange absence data. A health service that supports the standard processes notifications automatically instead of by hand.
Without an integration, the manager reports a sick employee in the HR system and then again in the portal of the occupational health service. Notifications arrive late or twice. A recovery report that is made in only one place leaves an absence file open at the health service.
What a notification contains
A notification contains the data the health service needs to support the absence, and no more:
- the first day of sickness;
- the absence percentage;
- the expected recovery;
- whether it concerns pregnancy or a vangnet (safety net scheme) situation.
No diagnosis is included. The cause is at most a code from the SIVI list.
Every notification carries two identifiers of the employer: the number at the health service and a separate affiliation number. That way absence does not end up with the wrong employer, which matters if you have several employers with one health service. As the employee number, KoppelHet uses a fixed personnel number, not the BSN (Dutch citizen service number), because health services may only use the BSN to a limited extent.
Sick report, change, correction and recovery report
The standard distinguishes between types of notification. That distinction determines how the health service updates the file.
Sick report. The first notification, with first day of sickness and percentage. Someone who falls sick before their first working day is an edge case: the health service rejects a notification with a start date in the future. The integration checks that in advance.
Change. The absence itself changes, for example a new percentage from a certain date with partial recovery.
Correction. An earlier notification was wrong, for example an incorrectly entered first day of sickness. The correction goes with the old date attached, so the health service knows the earlier notification was incorrect.
Recovery report. If the percentage drops to zero, the standard also asks for a recovery date and a reason. If the recovery date is missing, the integration holds the notification back instead of sending an incomplete recovery report.
Change and correction look alike, but are processed differently in the health service's file. That is why the integration has to keep them apart. How that works out when someone leaves while sick, with pregnancy and with multiple contracts is under leaving while sick, pregnancy and multiple contracts.
The confirmation from the health service
The health service confirms every notification with one of three outcomes: processed, processed with warning or rejected. On a rejection, HR gets a message with the reason. That way no notification is left hanging that everyone thinks has arrived.
Versions and method of delivery
SIVI releases a new version every year in July. Health services support the current version and the two previous ones. Which version the integration uses, we agree with the health service.
Since 2025, SIVI has prescribed a new, secured method of delivery. If a health service still uses an older form, the integration connects to that. The technical description is in the SIVI interface specification.
If your organisation reports to an absence insurer instead of, or alongside, a health service: SIVI also has a message from employer to absence insurer. The HR system side stays the same.
Multiple HR sources and international systems
The integration connects to the version and method of delivery the health service asks for, whether the source is Visma Raet YouForce, BCS or another HR system. Every notification and every rejection can be seen centrally.
Two HR sources with one health service do occur, for example BCS alongside YouForce. Both streams then use the same employer identifier and employee number, so nobody is registered as new twice. An international system such as Workday does not know the Dutch safety net scheme and usually records sickness per day. The integration records the safety net in an extra field and merges consecutive days into one absence case.
How KoppelHet builds this
KoppelHet builds the SIVI integration per organisation on its own platform. The integration picks up a notification as soon as the HR system has processed it, converts it to the agreed SIVI version and writes the confirmation back. As an indication, allow two to four weeks to go-live.
Examples: YouForce to the health service, BCS to the health service and Workday to the health service. The full explanation is on SIVI absence notification to the health service, and everything about absence integrations on absence reporting via SIVI. If your organisation works with Visma Verzuim, read Visma Verzuim integration.