CHAPTER 5: RETURNING TO WORK
This chapter outlines practical tips for getting staff back to work, so that you return as quickly as possible to business as usual.
The return to work interview
It is essential that following a period of unplanned absence, you hold a return to work interview. Make sure that you set the right tone for the interview. You do not want resentment to build up on either side so be careful about the language you use. By being positive and emphasising the value of the employee to the organisation you build confidence and commitment.
The focus should be on getting the individual integrated into the workplace as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring their ongoing well-being.
It could be that following a period of absence, you may need to make adjustments to the workplace or work patterns to help the employee return to work. This could be, for example, allowing flexi-working to fit in with the employee’s family demands, reducing responsibilities for a given period, or moving from full-time to part-time working.
A risk assessment is a useful way of identifying what barriers will prevent the employee from returning to full-time work. It could be that you also need to call on the help of an occupational health professional to assess the reasons for absence, the likely barriers to returning to work and how these can be overcome. Your HR professional should be able to facilitate this process.
When the employee does return to work, here is a suggested format for the interview:
1 Welcome back the employee. Emphasise you are genuinely pleased they have returned and the contribution they make.
2 Check that they are able to return to work – focus on their health and well-being. Discuss any adjustments that you need to facilitate in the workplace to help them rehabilitate. Offer support and encouragement. Where appropriate, discuss whether the absence is work related and what steps you can take to overcome obstacles.
3 As appropriate, agree a plan for how the employee will take up their duties. This should include clear goals and timeframes. If you and the team member, for example, have both agreed a transition to full-time duties, such as an initial decrease in hours, agree how long this will last and when this will be reviewed.
4 Document the return to work plan and include the measures you will use to check that it is being implemented and when it will be reviewed.
5 Discuss the support and help that you can personally provide to help the team member return to work.
6 Agree how you will inform colleagues of the plan and progress, so that everyone understands the situation. In this way the team can help the transition period and good relationships can be maintained.
Returning quickly to business as normal
The temptation, having conducted a return to work interview, is to leave the employee who has had unplanned absence to quickly integrate back into the workplace. However, research shows that effective two-way communication between the manager and the employee is vital to ensure ongoing commitment and engagement.
Unless the reason for absence was completely out of the control of the employee, such as force majeure, stop to consider the underlying causes for the unplanned absence that may be related to work:
• Are the employee’s problems with the design of the work that they are undertaking?
• Are their issues with relationships?
• What impact is your management style having on the employee?
• Are the goals they have been set too challenging or not stretching enough?
• What are their development needs?
• What are their career aspirations?
It is easy to attribute unplanned absence to things happening outside the work environment and sometimes this may be the case. However, in order to truly manage absence, employees need to feel able to raise issues that are troubling them with their managers at an early stage. Consider, therefore, your own management style, how approachable and supportive you are to your staff and what you might need to change in your approach to communication.
Typically, turnover is higher amongst employees in the early stages of a job, so it is also helpful to conduct exit interviews and undertake employee opinion surveys to ensure that you fully understand how best to engage your team.
Monitor unplanned absence
Make sure that you review the return to work plan you have developed with your member of staff and that you have regular, two-way communication. Your target should be to ensure the rehabilitation plan is realistic and achievable and to support your employee in its implementation.
If the unplanned absence continues, seek to identify the root cause and work with your employee to address this. Hopefully, this will identify remedial action.
If you do have to use your disciplinary procedure, ensure that you are familiar with and apply fairly the steps in the procedure and that you take HR advice. Some organisations adopt the policy of restricting sick pay after a certain period of absence. Again, you should consult your HR business partner on this to ensure that you stay within the law and your contractual obligations.
Creating a healthy work environment
The key to ensuring a lack of unplanned absence is early intervention and tackling the underlying causes of pressure and stress at work. Stress in the workplace is on the increase and is amongst the main causes, in office environments, of absence.
Hold an open discussion with your team about the pressures they are facing. Jointly develop ways to tackle the causes of stress and improve the work environment.
Remember to be flexible about requests for time off for caring and family commitments. Turning down a sudden request for leave may mean a team member simply takes unplanned absence instead. It may be better to discuss and agree how the work can be covered. In this way you can bank on continuing commitment from the team member. Likewise, discuss as a team how to manage periods when there are travel or weather disruptions, or when there are major sporting events which are likely to impact on work.
By taking a proactive approach to absence management, ensuring open communication, tackling root causes and line managers intervening early, it is possible to help save the organisation cost, and improve morale and productivity.
Table 6: Your approach to returning to work
Rate your approach to returning employees effectively to work:
