As manager, you must act early when you suspect that one of your employees is not feeling well and always initiate measures for preventing ill health and incapacity for work in the future.

When one of your employees gets sick, as manager, you have a rehabilitation responsibility. You must work systematically according to Stockholm university’s rehabilitation process and, if needed, contact/call in expert help, such as your HR specialist/advisor from the HR Office or occupational health care.

Below you will find a list of the content on the page. Click on the links to read more.

Different kinds of rehabilitation

Documentation

Different kinds of rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a collective term for measures that are taken to help an employee stay at work or to return as quickly as possible. Such measures can be medical, social or occupational in nature. 

Medical rehabilitation

The healthcare is responsible for medical rehabilitation. Medical rehabilitation consists of measures intended to result in an individual being able to retain or regain their physical and psychological functional capacity to the extent possible. Examples of medical rehabilitation include physiotherapy, stress management in the case of exhaustion, therapy etc.

Occupational rehabilitation

As the employee's immediate manager, you are responsible for occupational rehabilitation regardless of the reason the person is on sick leave.

Employees whose capacity for work is reduced due to sickness must receive help and support in order to regain their work capacity and thereby be able to return to work – completely or partially. Rehabilitation efforts should be made early on, systematically and in a coordinated manner. Examples of occupational rehabilitation are adjustments to the work, work training, education, transfers etc.

As an employer, we are obligated to take all measures that can be reasonably required to be able to keep the employment ongoing. However, we are not obligated to generate special work assignments – the work assignments should already exist within the organisation.

Documentation

As an employer, Stockholm University is responsible for clearly documenting the entire rehabilitation process.

Who should document?

As the one responsible for the rehabilitation itself, you are also responsible for continuous documentation throughout the rehabilitation process.

The person responsible for the rehabilitation is obligated to "carry out active rehabilitation efforts in accordance with the employer's responsibility." You have been given this responsibility in connection with the allocation of work environment responsibilities.

If an employee falls under another manager or another place of work within the university, the responsible manager must provide information and documentation regarding sick leave and any rehabilitation measures taken to the new manager.

What should be documented?

All important details relating to rehabilitation efforts must be documented. The aim of this documentation is to be able to monitor rehabilitation cases from beginning to end; ultimately to be able to prove that we as an employer have fulfilled our rehabilitation responsibility.

Document – feel free to use templates from our toolbox

  • Communication via email and telephone that is relevant to the case
  • Rehabilitation meetings (completed as well as cancelled)
  • Status checks, conversations/phone calls and other meetings
  • Rehabilitation efforts, such as work training, adjustments at work etc.
  • Planning a return to work, and the outcome
  • Planning part-time work, and the outcome
  • Action plans and the follow-ups
  • Agreements or decisions
  • Other information or events that are significant to the case.

We suggest to use the Notes template to keep a record, where you can gather all information and events relevant to the case. For special meetings, such as preventative rehabilitation meetings or planning a return to work etc., use the relevant template, but write in your notes that such documentation exists.

Procedure for documentation of rehabilitation cases

All documentation in a rehabilitation case is stored in a physical or digital rehabilitation case file as a subfolder in the personnel file.

You can choose to have one part of the documentation saved in a digital file and another part in a physical file, provided that individual documents are only stored in one place. If you choose this solution (physical and digital), make a note that more documents can be found elsewhere: on the cover of the file (physical file) and in the General information subfolder (digital file).

All employees should be able to trust that information about a rehabilitation case will not be disclosed to unauthorized individuals. The Swedish Public Access to Information Act and the Secrets Act (offentlighets- och sekrettesslagen) regulates the way that personal data is handled. Remember that documentation is covered by confidentiality legislation, so it must be managed carefully and be kept locked away during storage (physical file) or with limited access (digital folder); when not in use.

Handling of cases up to day 30 of sick leave

All documentation is stored in a physical or digital rehabilitation case file at the department/equivalent as long as the employee is employed at Stockholm University.

Sorting-out routines:
The medical certificates are sorted-out as follows:
– medical certificate for day 8–14 of sick leave – are sorted-out after 10 years
– medical certificate over day 15 of sick leave – are sorted-out after 2 years.

If the employee leaves Stockholm University, all documentation except medical certificates that are sorted-out according to the routine above. Make sure that your department/equivalent has their own sorting-out routine and that the routine is followed.

Handling of cases over day 30 of sick leave

Request a reference number
When the employee's sick leave period exceeds day 30, you as the manager must request a reference number from the Registrator (registration). The case is given a case name: Rehabiliteringsärende; sekretessbelagt (Rehabilitation case; classified). The case in the registration record follows Stockholm University's routines for handling cases with secrecy and shall not contain any documents. There must be a reference in the registration that the documents are stored in the rehabilitation case file at the department/equivalent. Update the registration if there is a change in where the documents are stored; for example, if the employee quits or changes workplace within Stockholm University.

Ongoing case over day 30 of sick leave
The documents must be kept organized at the department/equivalent in a rehabilitation case file, with the manager who is responsible for handling the case. The documents may only be stored physically or digitally; not both.

If the employee changes employment within the Stockholm University, the entire rehabilitation case file must be sent in a safe manner to the new manager with rehabilitation responsibility.

Closed case over day 30 in sick leave

  1. Closed case – the employee is employed at the department/equivalent
    When the rehabilitation case is completed, the rehabilitation case file must be cleared of all work documents and documents of temporary or minor significance. Keep only all medical certificates, return to work plans, decisions related to the case, notes from a conversation at the end of occupational rehabilitation. Remember to also clear email conversations in your Outlook.

    Sort the documents into two different envelopes (physical) or folders (digital).
    1. All medical certificates linked to the case.
    2. Other documents related to the case – Return to work plan, decision, notes from a conversation at the end of occupational rehabilitation.

    The envelopes must be closed and marked with the reference number, the employee's Swedish personal ID number, the text "sensitive" and the date for closing the case. The digital folders must have a limited access.

    The envelopes with a medical certificate should be sorted-out as follows:
    – Medical certificate from day 8–14 of sick leave – after 10 years
    – Medical certificate after day 15 of sick leave – after 2 years.

    The closed envelopes/digital folders are kept at the department as long as the employee is employed at the department/equivalent.
     
  2. Closed case – the employee changes job within Stockholm University
    When the case is closed and the employee changes job within Stockholm University, the rehabilitation case file (physical and/or digital) must be sent in a secure manner to the HR Office, your HR specialist/advisor. Remember to update the registration (Registrator) with the information on where the documentation is located.
     
  3. Closed case – the employee ends the employment at Stockholm University
    If the employee no longer is employed at Stockholm University, you need to send the rehabilitation case file (physical and/or digital) in a secure manner to the central archive (physical file) or the digital local archive/central e-archive (digital file). Remember to update the registration with the information on where the documentation is located.