HRVA

It is my experience that most employees who have had time off work for sickness return to work and continue working hard in their role but there are occasions when other interventions have to be put in place. 

A Return to Work plan is needed when an Employee has had sporadic absences, the aim of which is ensuring the individual returns to work with no more absences! Experience tells me that sometimes people can’t stick to the plan resulting in disciplinary action.  Consideration is also given to a Phased Return to Work where an individual has had more than 8 weeks absence.

NB: If you are have access to an Occupational Health service, I would recommend that you get their medical advice when dealing with any type of absence.

There are a few occasions when an individual is unlikely to return to their role meaning that the organisation has to look for suitable alternative roles in the organisation or as a last resort, dismissing the individual on the basis that they are not “Capable” of undertaking a role within the organisation.  Capability exits should be dealt with in a sympathetic manner and Employees should be offered as much support as possible during this process. As an Employer you should have a separate process for dealing with capability exits which will be similar to your Disciplinary Process.

 Remember – there are a number of legal requirements with regards to areas such as Disability Discrimination and special care should be taken when dealing with absence and pregnancy!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Absence In The Workplace, Build Blocks for HR, Equal Opportunities and Diversity, Long Term Absence, Managing Employees, Short Term Absences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.