subject: Improve Return-to-work Process To Enhance Employee Performance [print this page] Employers must understand how to manage the return-to-work process for long-term staff absentees in order to improve business performance.
Research by XpertHR revealed that long-term absence accounted for more than a quarter of the total days lost to sickness last year which shows how much potential there is to boost business performance if this number is reduced.
Employees are most likely to take long periods off work through sickness due to acute medical illnesses such as cancer and mental health issues with the main contributing condition to this factor being stress.
Stress is becoming so commonplace in the modern-day workplace that an increasing number of organisations are taking an active role in managing and combating the mental health illness.
Employers are keener to promote employee health and wellbeing in the workplace because more understand how importance this is to the overall productivity and performance of a business.
If stress is a significant contributing factor to long-term absence within a workplace, it is essential that the business in question undertakes research into the causes of stress within their organisation in order to make it easier for people to return to work.
Effective ways for employers to improve the return-to-work process are to enable their staff to work flexible hours when they first revisit the workplace as well as constantly communicating with them throughout their illness.
Employees are more likely to return to work earlier from a long-term absence if there is an informal, two-way communication channel between them and their employer so that both parties are actively involved in the absence management process.
Employers should take responsibility of maintaining regular contact with sick staff as soon as they take time off work as this will give them the best chance of achieving an early return to work.
Regular contact should not take the form of home visits as this will probably put the employee under too much pressure to return so an informal method such as email or phone calls is preferred.
Adopting a flexible approach to an employee's working hours following their return from sickness will encourage them to take a proactive role in their very own return-to-work plan.
Organisations are willing to take a flexible approach in welcoming employees back to work may need to examine how their business processes operate in case performance has the potential to be affected.
Performance improvement consulting professionals can help organisations redesign their processes to enhance productivity by eliminating inefficiencies and waste.
