Long-term absent employees? Here's how to reintegrate them into your organisation
Long-term absent employees? Here's how to reintegrate them into your organisation
February 2023 – If a long-term sick person does not have it hard enough, another threat lurks: the fade-out. The longer a sick colleague remains absent, the harder it becomes to return to work. The remedy is keeping in touch, embedded in a solid reintegration process.
Figures from the federal health insurance NIHDI show that today, nearly half a million employees, self-employed and unemployed people have not worked or are not looking for work for more than a year. More than €1.6 billion goes to benefits for long-term disability caused by depression or burnout.
Employers under pressure
It is clear that more and more employees in our country are struggling with the ever-increasing workload. Long-term absent employees are no gift to businesses. Think, for instance, of the increasing pressure on employees who have to cope with the work of sick colleagues, the rising costs for employers and the difficult search for replacements.
From reintegration process to successful job resumption
The federal government in our country initiated a reform in recent years to get long-term sick people back to work. Because a professional approach to a reintegration strategy pays off, both for employees and employers. A well-managed reintegration increases the chances of a successful return to work.
Since 2016, employers have been obliged to guide long-term sick people to return to work. A reintegration process is the joint search by employer and employee for feasible ways for an incapacitated employee to reintegrate into the company. Such reintegration route - preferably part of a broader HR policy - is gradual and structured. A pathway consists of the following five phases:
Clear five-step plan
Start-up: the request for a reintegration process is made in writing and is always addressed to the prevention advisor-occupational physician. Several persons can initiate the reintegration process: the employer, the advisory doctor of the health insurance fund or the long-term patient himself (or his treating doctor).
Assessment: the labour doctor examines whether your employee is capable of resuming work and lays down conditions for this, with, for example, an adapted workplace or (temporarily) adapted work.
Consultation: employer, employee, labour doctor and other parties involved look together at how to translate the decisions of the second stage into practice.
Reintegration plan: as an employer, you bundle the concrete measures in a reintegration plan, based on the reintegration assessment by the labour doctor. Don't do this? Then you have to motivate that choice in a report.
Implementation and monitoring: if your employee agrees with the reintegration plan, you can get started. The labour doctor closely monitors this process.
Communication as a crucial building block
A successful reintegration process depends on the right communication at the right time. As a golden rule, as an employer, keep the lines of communication open as much as possible, from the moment of reporting sick until after the employee concerned has been followed up. Also consider the following tips:
Always involve all stakeholders in your reintegration policy: the CPBW, the works council, the occupational doctor, management and supervisors, etc.
Communicate clearly and timely with absent employees. After all, when someone is absent for a long time, he or she is in danger of dropping out mentally. As already indicated, keeping in touch helps avoid an impending fade-out. So encourage your managers to keep in touch during your employee's absence.
Also consider employees who take up the work of sick colleagues: motivate them, and keep them involved in their work. This promotes their productivity and efficiency and strengthens the group feeling.
Keep long-term sick employees informed about the possibility of an informal workplace visit before resuming work. This way, you lower the threshold for a quick return.
Reintegration works
That these efforts are yielding results is proven by the latest figures. Since 2018, the group of disabled people has grown by 5 per cent annually. By 2021, that increase will have shrunk to 3 per cent.