Shawnee Love   •  
April 12, 2017

If you did a great job of communicating with your employee while on medical leave, chances are you will be in the loop on your employee’s recovery and return to work hopes and plans.  Your consistent and supportive communication will also keep the employee connected to the organization and prevent or at least reduce the return to work fear.

If you have never been on a medical/ sick leave, you might be wondering what I am talking about, but research and feedback from returning employees over many years has shown me that those fears exist and they can seriously slow down and even sidetrack the return to work process.  That is why consistent and supportive communication is at the heart of any good leave management program.

Assuming you followed the steps and also communicated proactively and productively (aka often, consistently and compassionately), then you have set a solid foundation upon which to return your employee to work.  If as part of the communication, you have already explained the return to work process, then you are ready to begin implementing.

The first step is to ensure the employee’s doctor has approved a return to work and provided information on what the employee may and may not do.  I encourage you to ensure the doctor knows as much about the job requirements as possible before preparing a return to work statement. To that end, I will provide the employee with a letter to take to the doctor outlining the physical and mental requirements of the job and ask the doctor to provide:

• An assessment of fitness for work based on the job requirements,
• Specific limits on abilities and/or required accommodations, and
• The minimum amount of time the limits or accommodations need to be in place before another doctor’s assessment is needed.

When this information comes back from the doctor, you will be able to evaluate which accommodations are possible.  If you can’t accommodate, then advise the employee the return to work will be delayed until modifications are no longer needed.  However, I encourage you to find a way to accommodate whenever possible, because studies show the earlier you get people back to work (even if on a part time basis), the greater the likelihood of successful re-entry overall.

Once you have the doctor’s statement and you have reviewed what if any modifications the employee needs and determined how to accommodate, you are ready to make it happen.

Step one:  Have the employee come in for a meet and greet with the rest of the team in advance of the return to work.  This visit allows everyone to reconnect and re-establish rapport and friendships.  I would also take this opportunity to:

• Firm up the return to work schedule (based on the doctor’s guidance),
• Confirm the modifications to the job,
• Discuss what to do if things don’t work as planned (e.g., notify the manager, see your doctor and get a revised fitness for work form, etc,)
• Agree on check ins and timing on follow up with the doctor to provide a fitness for work update, and last but not least,
• Catch the employee up on what’s new and has changed since the beginning of his/her leave.

If you do all these things, you have a solid foundation for the return to work and all that remains is:

Step 2:  Have the employee to give the return to work a try.

Try this process out and let us know how it works for you.