Instead of a disciplinary atmosphere, managers should use the time with the employee to show that they care. Managers’ attitude to the interviews will have a direct impact on the usefulness of the meeting. So how to make sure your RTW interviews feel meaningful to manager and employee alike?
Tag Archives: return to work
Staying safe at work after 19th July 2021
We are once more in the middle of a whirlwind of ever-changing government advice about Covid. On 19th July, only days from now, workplaces can re-open normally – in theory at least. The rising Covid infection rates in the UK mean that there is a lot of anxiety about the re-opening. Employers have decisions to make about how to best serve their business and customers whilst looking after employee welfare. Continue reading
When do you expect to return to work?
A key part of capturing full absence data is knowing when the employee thinks they might be able to return to work. Engage absence registration forms have always had a date input field for the estimated return. However, a lot of absentees struggle to provide an estimated date because their situation can easily change from one day to the next.
Myth: RTW interviews are not needed for short absences
You might think, as many do, that Return to Work (RTW) interviews are only necessary when an employee has been off work due to a serious illness or injury or for a long time. In fact, the opposite is true. Continue reading
Myth: You need to be 100% fit to return to work
There are two common misconceptions about return to work after illness: 1) that you have to be fully recovered to return and 2) that you cannot return until a medical certificate runs out. Excluding contagious diseases or health and safety reasons barring a return, “you don’t have to be 100% OK to return to work. The earlier you can return to work the better. Work is often part of treatment, and getting back to work is part of the recovery process” (Professor Burton, NHS). Continue reading
Have you heard of First Day OH service, the new approach to early intervention?
Early intervention has always been our mantra. The sooner an absence is reviewed and the appropriate action taken to put a plan in place for a return to work, the better the outcomes. Short of spotting any warning signs for problem before it escalates to an absence, there’s no better time for early intervention than the first day of absence. We’ve shared some scary stats in the past that should give us enough reason not to be idle while an absence gradually becomes long term, but if you were wondering how to achieve this in practice, Day-1 OH could be the solution you’ve been looking for. Continue reading
Returning to the workplace after lockdown
Many businesses across England are resuming operations after almost seven weeks in lockdown, employees are being encouraged to return to work, providing working from home is not possible; whilst employers are now required by law to comply with government sector specific guidelines to ensure the workplace is COVID-19 secure and with the necessary precautionary measures in place. Continue reading
RTW after common mental health disorders
We recently attended the Health and Wellbeing @Work conference in Birmingham where Senior Researcher from Tilburg University Dr Margot Joosen presented her findings from a study focusing on returning employees to work who were or had been absent with a mental health issue. Continue reading
Right to return within one year of absence?
The Resolution Foundation published a report titled Retention Deficit in June 2016 to discuss the challenge of increasing employment level among disabled people. This article provides a summary of the report and recommendations. All the recommendations put forward here are those of the report authors.
Despite the employment rate sitting at a record high, the government has positioned halving the disability employment gap as a central challenge for the UK labour market. Progress in employment rates among the disabled has been modest at best, but large geographic variations in disability employment rates give reason to hope that improvements are possible. Continue reading
Presenteeism vs work as means of rehabilitation
The Institute of Employment Studies (IES) published a review of presenteeism in May 2016. Occupational Health & Wellbeing reported that the headline finding of the report was that presenteeism can be beneficial. Reading the report itself, it is obvious that the writers use a different definition of ‘presenteeism’ from the one we at Honeydew would use. Continue reading