Return to Work - Mental ill health
Having a Proactive and Supportive approach to return to work following absence with mental ill health including stress is essential training for managers, supervisors and team leaders.
Effective training to return to work will equip managers, supervisors and team leaders to assist with getting employees' back to work as soon as possible. However, being equipped with the appropriate tools ensures employees have the best and safest return to work. This will help to reduce the amount of claims due to poor return to work due to lack of communication and support.
Our Return to Work onsite or virtual training includes:
- Overview of laws managing sickness absence and return to work
- Key principles of rehabilitation and return to work and understanding early intervention
- Understanding all the key stakeholders in the return to work
- Understanding on how to implement a return to work process/programme
- Understanding how to work with occupational health, physiotherapists as examples
- Understanding the role you can play in consultation around reasonable adjustments and suitable duties/job design
- Practical tips to encourage a return to work process to achieve successful outcomes
Case Study
An example of advice recently was an IT company had a member of staff absent for 4 weeks and wished advice as it was due to excessive stress from a personal issue. The staff member was under a lot of stress and our consultant had a consultation with the staff member.
A clear return to work plan was recommended which included some reasonable adjustments (shorter working days was one of the recommendations) and a Stress Risk Assessment (SRA) should be completed. We were able to give advice and full support around completion of the SRA. However, due to total breakdown in communication with senior management, the consultant was asked to carry out a SRA and a structured, tailored return to work plan was agreed.
If the company had not accessed our service, then the member of staff would have been absent for a much longer time and this would have had an impact on the company as well as the team they were working in.