Return to Work
Resources
for Managers

Implementing a Return to Work Plan

Once the details of the RTW plan have been developed, the plan needs to be reviewed, and agreed to by  

• The employee  
• You as their supervisor  
• Their return to work co-ordinator  
• Their primary medical/ healthcare practitioner 

And also by their  

• Injury manager coordinator (if they have one)  
• Workplace rehabilitation provider (if they have one)  

Once the plan has been agreed, they should be provided with a copy of the final plan so they can implement whatever they are responsible for, and have the plan to refer back to as needed.   

As arrangements are implemented for your employee’s return to work, its crucial you check whether  

• All arrangements are in place before their return
• Everyone involved in supporting their return to
  work has been advised about what’s occurring
• The arrangements for the first day are clear and
  understood by everyone involved, especially the employee.

So that your employee’s return is as supportive and
effective as possible.

The experiences they have when they first return are a powerful influence on how successfully they return to working, and how well they can re-engage with the organisation. So its important that this is as positive as it can be and a smoother transition than this interviewee experienced!

Reviewing and revising a Return to Work Plan 

Because people’s recovery and return to work can vary so much, its important that you and your employee check in regularly about how they are going, and how support arrangements are working, so these can be adjusted as needed.  

Ideally, you should check in with your employee regularly during their first weeks back at work and you might, for example, schedule a check in for  

• Their first day 
• Their first week 

But you should also have arrangements in place with them so they can contact you or another workplace support person betweentimes if they need to.  

When you are checking in with your employee and discussing how their RTW is going, it can be helpful to use open questions to provide employees with opportunities to express concern in their own way. For example, you could ask;

• How are things going?
• Is there anything we can do to help?

Keep discussions focused on work-related issues. For instance, ask “how is your concentration?” rather than “how is your depression”?  

• Be realistic about what you can do to help 
• Be clear about confidentiality and who will be told 
• Agree how problems will be monitored  
• Address any specific issues of concern as soon as possible to avoid things getting worse, especially if work performance is a problem  

You should also ensure that any hurtful gossip or behaviour is dealt with promptly and effectively.

 Revising arrangements  

The key consideration, when reviewing arrangements with your employee, is whether they are working as anticipated to help the employee safely and successfully resume working.  

 If they are not, then you should   

• Review the existing arrangements to determine which ones are not working as anticipated 
• Re-do the processes detailed in Topic 4 to develop a new set of accommodations that better align with your employee’s needs.    

When you do so, its crucial that you begin that process, as in Topic 4, by finding out how your employee is now feeling and how their health, medication or treatment is now affecting them. That way, you can ensure the new arrangements you are developing will  

• Address the needs they now have (rather than address needs which may not be as relevant any more) 
• Work more effectively than the previous arrangements, as you will be able to discuss with your employee how new arrangements may work better or worse than the ones in place before  

If your employee's RTW arrangements need to be adapted, especially if this results in them working in a different team, role or environment, its important to be recognise that this may feel like an additional blow to them, or as though they have 'failed' to return to work successfully. So it's important this is dealt with sympathetically, and that you give them credit for all the efforts they are making.

It may also feel like a blow to you as well, but please be reassured: if your employee's RTW arrangements do need to be adapted, it doesn’t mean you’ve done a poor job in supporting them. It just means that it is now apparent that they can be better supported. It may be that the original supports didn't work an anticipated. Or it may be that your employee had needs that only became apparent once the original arrangements were put in place. Or it may be that other issues and considerations came into play.

So there can be many reasons why a RTW plan might need to be adapted. As we said in Topic 4, the best plan, and planning process, is the one which provides the best match between the employee’s needs and the organisation’s supports that can be achieved at any given time, which means being flexible, responsive and open to change. If a change is needed, it's far better to find out, and make the change, as soon as possible!

Reviewing psychosocial safety

Its also important to reassess the psychosocial risks and psychological safety of the person’s working environment. This includes checking whether:

• Additional risks have developed or arisen.
  This is especially important if they have returned to work in a new environment  
• Their feelings of safety have changed.
  As people undergo their return to work they may come to feel more or less psychologically safe over time. For instance they might feel safer when they initially return and have additional supports in place, but if and when those supports are changed later on, that might lead them to feel less psychologically safe 
• They have experienced any comments or behaviour that they have experienced as stigmatising or unsupportive.
  This is important to know so that they can access help but also so that the organisation can deal with that as an issue of workplace culture and problematic workplace behaviour
• They are working back in an environment or working around people that contributed their mental ill-health, so as to check how safe they are feeling to be in back in those circumstances or people.

References

Content for this page sourced from;

Australian Human Rights Commission. (2010). Workers with mental illness: A practical guide for managers. Australian Human Rights Commission.

Return to Work. (2023a). The return to work plan. Retrieved from https://workplace-mentalhealth.net.au/return-to-work-plan/

Return to Work. (2023b). Return to work: Topics for supervisors. Retrieved from https://returntowork.workplacementalhealth.net.au/

Safe Work Australia. (2023). Developing a return to work plan: Guide and template. Retrieved from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/2023-06/developing-return-to-work-plan-guide-and-template_0.pdf