As part of a phased or modified return, changes can be made to help you return to work.
These can include:
- Planned and gradual return to work. This can happen over a period of weeks to help ease people back into work.
- Phased returns with amended duties. To start with, people may be able to return to work on reduced hours and carrying out less physically challenging roles, such as cleaning staff not being required to carry out kneeling tasks.
- In some situations, it may be possible to plan for a more complex phased return. An example of this might be altering the hours, and duties someone does if they work rotating shifts and/or have non-standard working hours.
- Informal phased returns which allow the employee to return at their own speed, giving them responsibility for their own return to work plan.
- Where employees are working part time, a phased return is not always possible so to start with their duties can be made less onerous to compensate.
- Using annual leave and public holidays in conjunction with a phased return to ease employees back into work without triggering sickness absence monitoring.
- Working in a less physical role such as an engineer using the computer to oversee the engineering work rather than carrying it out themselves or an employee returning in a clerical/administrative role for the first few weeks that they are back at work.