Helping An Employee Through Sickness

March 1, 2019 - Working in HR means that you will often have to deal with problems that employees are having. If an employee is sick, for example, what should you do to help them, but also ensure that the company is able to continue trading as it always has done? There are a number of elements to this; read on below to find out more.

Get Medical Advice

Some employee sicknesses are short term ones that have no real impact on the way that they do their job or the way that the company can trade. Some, however, are much more long term, and it is essential that a distinction is made as soon as possible so that you can put any plans that are required into place.

Once it becomes clear that the sickness is a long term one, you should get medical advice regarding the issue. Find out if there is anything you can do to help the employee return to work, for example. It may be that they can come back on a part-time basis, or they could work from home until they are well enough to come back to the office.

Maintain Contact

When an employee is off sick from work, it can be easy to lose contact. However, it is important not to let this happen if you want to help them through their sickness. By maintaining contact and asking questions about how they are doing and what they need from you, you can reassure them that you are keeping their best interests at heart.

As their illness progresses or their injury heals, this contact can become more and more critical. It will help them to understand that their work colleagues and managers haven't forgotten them. It also means you can stay up to date with any changes in their health, and if there is a medical negligence case, The Medical Negligence Experts may need your department's records to determine the compensation required so ensuring you know how things are progressing is important.

Managing Their Return To Work

Ideally, at some point, the employee who has been sick or injured will return to work. It is essential that this is managed correctly; pushing too hard too soon can cause a relapse, or cause the employee to decide that they want to look elsewhere for work. If you want to manage this return carefully, you could consider that they return part-time, or have a phased return. They may need to be on lighter duties than they were when they left, at least for a short period of time.

It may be necessary to find out what medication is required and discuss how this can be taken at work. It is also a good idea to speak once again to the employee's doctor to see how fit they are to work. An employee might be keen to come back, but if they are not well enough and medical advice suggests they wait, then this is what they should do for the good of their health.

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