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Be alert for early signals
Investigate sick leave record
Repeated short-term sick leave
Preventative rehabilitation meeting
Toolbox for preventative rehabilitation
Be alert for early signals
As manager, it is important that you pay attention to early signals of ill health amongst your employees. The earlier a problem is identified, the greater will be the possibility of a positive outcome from your preventative rehabilitation efforts. If there is reason to suspect that an employee is not feeling well, it is very important to find the cause of the problem at an early stage and put in place appropriate support measures so as to prevent the risk that the employee should eventually find themselves on long-term sick leave.
Some examples of early signals in employees:
- repeated short-term sick leave (6 times off sick in the last 12 months)
- behavioural changes, such as isolating themselves from colleague or becoming quiet and introverted
- irritation, aggression, anxiety, restlessness, 'everything is too hard'
- works over-ambitiously
- decrease in performance
- difficulty being on time
- often suffering from various ailments
- cooperation difficulties.
Investigate sick leave record
Investigate the employee's sick leave record. It is often necessary to look back a year to get an idea of any pattern or to see when a change first began to appear.
Repeated short-term sick leave
Long-term sick leave often starts as repeated short-term sick leave; it often escalates to more frequent and longer periods of absence. Noticing this in time may prevent an employee from going on long-term sick leave. The reasons for a person taking sick leave may be medical, but can also be due to an employee's work and/or personal situation. By mapping the situation, we as employers can more easily take measures for preventing future ill health and incapacity for work.
As manager, you must therefore work systematically with cases of repeated short-term sick leave as follows:
- once a month, take out a short-term sick leave report in Primula for your staff group; see the instructions on how to do so
- call employees who have six or more cases of sickness in the last twelve months to a preventative rehabilitation meeting
- based on the preventative rehabilitation meeting, formulate and follow up on an action plan.
One of the measures could be to require a medical certificate from the first day of sickness. Contact your HR specialist/advisor at the HR Office for advice and support.
Preventative rehabilitation meeting
Preventative rehabilitation meetings should be held with an employee:
- who has repeatedly been on sick leave – that is, six cases of sickness in the last twelve months
- when you assess that there is reason to conduct such a conversation because something appears to be amiss, or
- when an employee initiates the meeting.
As manager, by having a conversation with the employee, you can identify the reason for the problem and see what possibilities exist for giving support, or what measures need to be taken. The purpose of the conversation is to prevent possible sick leave and to catch early signals that your employee is not feeling well, as well as taking measures to prevent ill health and incapacity for work in the future. Dialogs are the best way of identifying the need for action. Dare to ask!
By formulating a concrete action plan, the potential for finding the appropriate measures and support for the employee improves, meaning that the employee will receive the help they need to be able to function at work.
Based on systematic work environment management, it is important that you also take care of the organisational and social aspects that emerge from the conversation, such as work load, working hours, resources, authority etc.
Managers who need support before a preventative rehabilitation meeting can contact their HR specialist/advisor at the HR Office.
Toolbox for preventative rehabilitation
Guide for producing sick leave report in Primula (176 Kb)
Map for managers – occupational rehabilitation (picture) (199 Kb)
Notes template – rehabilitation (165 Kb)