Conducting a return-to-work interview can help a corporation or company maintain its organizational structure. Employees are no less than the building blocks of a company. It is crucial to keep a check and balance on them, especially when they return to work after a prolonged leave. This will let the corporation determine the mental health of the employee.
Besides, it will also help the employee catch up with the corporate affairs he must have missed while on leave.
Every company with a systematic organizational structure has a viable “absence management program.” The primary goal of this program is to conduct back-to-work interviews and help the employees to settle back into the office environment.
Companies with a proper absence management program have reported that the return-to-work interviews have significantly helped the employees to re-settle at their posts. Such employees retain their working momentum faster than those who do not give these interviews.
However, since “absence management programs” are still a new phenomenon for many companies, many don’t know how to conduct a return to work-interview. You are at the right place if you also seek information on return-to-work interviews. This article will highlight all the crucial aspects of a return-to-work template and what are its benefits.
How to Conduct a Return to Work Interview?
The absence management program comes under HR management, implying that the HR manager must conduct return-to-work interviews. But if you are an HR manager and do not know the systematic procedure for return-to-work interviews, the following guide may provide invaluable information.
Unlike typical interviews, return-to-work meetings are short and precise but informal. These meetings aim to check whether the employee is mentally and physically healthy. It also determines whether the employee is ready to return to duties and in what aspects he may require assistance.
Obviously, the employee will not provide you with all such information verbally. Instead, as a manager, you must have a deeper insight and use certain tactics to make the decision. Below are some points you can include in your return-to-work meetings to make them more effective and conclusive.
Greeting the Employee Back to Work
Human beings have very adaptive behaviour. They tend to adapt themselves to their environment mentally and physically immediately. Since your employee was on leave, he might have outgrown the office environment. And returning to work may make him feel anxious and stressed.
That is why it is essential to greet the employees pleasantly so that they feel welcomed and included. You can write them a back-to-work letter after sickness before they rejoin the office. Similarly, asking employees to come back to work emails may also prove helpful in this regard.
Your conversational tone should be informal rather than formal so the employee feels relaxed and at ease. Do not instantly start talking with him about work and office duties. Instead, you should ask him about his health and inquire about the status of the emergency for which he had taken a leave.
Try listening to the employee instead of dominating him with a one-sided conversation. Let him state the reasons for his absence and give a justifiable explanation. After having a casual chat-up, you can switch to inquiring about crucial work-related information.
Explaining the Purpose of the Interview
Since return-to-work interviews are not common in all organizations, and not many people know about them, employees may feel uncomfortable with them. You can start by explaining the nature of the interview and why it is crucial for the organization.
Make the employee feel relaxed by informing him that return-to-work interviews are informal and do not have strict regulations. However, tell them whatever reason or answers they provide at the interview will be recorded and stored within the official records.
Ask Them for a Self-Assessment
Recent studies reveal that the mental status of an employee can affect a company’s productivity rate. You may not want a mentally unstable or restrained to return to work without a recovery. Thus, ask him mental health support worker interview questions and answers which reflect his stability.
Politely, you may ask him to have a self-analysis dissecting his mental and physical fitness. Do not pressure him regarding work loss, as it will prompt the employee to provide you with a false analysis. You can also ask the employee for a ‘fit note’ from the concerned doctor or psychologist.
Do not ask them for information that they are not willing to provide. Many employees are not comfortable with disclosing “personal information.” You should maintain a formal decorum with such people to make them feel at ease. With the help of this analysis, you will be able to determine whether the employee is ready to make a return to the company.
Updating the Employee
While on leave, the employee must have missed a lot of work and may have difficulty catching up with the changed office environment. Therefore, to help them re-adjusting to this environment, the best you can do is update them about the new changes and alterations.
It may include the projects the company has bagged in their absence, the new recruitments, or the latest changes to the managerial system. Employees who return to work after stress or illness might have forgotten the work office pattern. That is why you should also explain and remind them of the working practices.
Inform About Current Needs
Every employee has a right to take leaves in case of emergencies or illness. But most corporations will not halt the work and wait for the employee to return to resume his tasks. Instead, they replace him with other employees temporarily or hire internees.
Thus, if an employee takes a prolonged leave, he should not expect his tasks to be in the same state where he had left them. You must inform him of the current status of his tasks in the meeting and ask for the required adjustments.
You should also brief them on the prospects of the company and what the current goals are. In this way, employees will better understand the aspects they should focus on after returning to the office.
Inquire About Required Support
Many workers may require additional financial or official support after they return from leave. You can inform him of the company’s policy and what kind of assistance they can extend. Some companies proffer their employees some funds, while others give them advanced salaries or even provide them with interest-free loans.
Besides financial assistance, some employees may desire to start with fewer working hours. This usually happens in the case of female employees who have returned from maternity leave. Thus, depending upon their needs, you can extend them some help to re-adapt to their work in a desirable manner.
Recording the Absence
Next, you should confirm for many days the employee was absent. Obviously, the company would have marked the leave. But you may want to inform the employee to avoid any confusion. You should also inform him of the disciplinary conduct of the office and the number of allowed paid leaves.
Allow him to Ask Questions
Contrary to some misconceptions, return-to-work interviews are not one-sided, where the interviewer only asks questions. Instead, you should also allow the employee to ask certain questions regarding his duties, nature of work, office hours, and other miscellaneous stuff.
Let him also tell the changes he may require in his working pattern and his vision for the future. His questions will give you deeper insight into the employee’s demands and current professional status.
What are Some of the Best Tips for Return-to-Work Interviews?
Now that you know the basic strategies for a return-to-work interview, let’s scrutinize a few additional tips to make the interviews more effective.
Try to remain objective. Though the interview is informal, the interviewer must not get too personal with the employee. Emotions and feelings must not reflect in the tone of the interview.
You must positively conduct the return-to-work interview. It will encourage the employee to feel at ease and have an open conversation with the interviewer.
Allow the employee to ask questions as well. Since the employee has returned from a prolonged leave, they must also have a few queries. Ensure that the employee’s concerns are acknowledged and provide him sufficient time to express his notions.
What is the Purpose of Back to Work Interviews?
The primary purpose of the return-to-work interviews is to keep managerial control over the employees and maintain decorum in the office. The back-to-work interviews ensure employee accountability and discourage prolonged leaves.
These interviews make the employee realize that the management observes their every move and they will go unaccountable. However, these interviews should be conducted in a manner that does not cause nervousness among the employee.
It should not be too strict so that employees feel hesitant to ask for leaves or get nervous about going back to work after medical leave. In such situations, employees who are sick will resist taking leaves. Working while sick may result in a higher attendance ratio, but productivity and work quality may be affected adversely.
What are the Benefits of Return to Work Interviews?
Earlier, return-to-work interviews were a part of only a few companies. But now, more corporations include it in their absent management programs due to its associated benefits. Some of the top advantages include the following;
1. To Ensure that Employees are Ready to Return to Work
Every corporation desires to recruit healthy and mentally-stable people. The return to work interview ensures that employees getting back to work after long-term sickness are not always mentally fit or stable.
Some tend to return to work without getting cured just to maintain their attendance records. But in actuality, they are not physically fit. However, with the help of back-to-work interviews, you can get a full disclosure of the employee’s health and determine whether he is fit to return to work.
2. Helping the Employee to Re-Adapt to the Environment
As stated earlier, prolonged sickness or emergency leaves tend to put workers off from the typical office environment. When they return to work, they may find it challenging to re-adapt to the environment.
But with the help of return-to-work interviews, you assist them to re-settle to the office pattern. You can also update them about the changes made while the employee was on leave. You can instruct them about the company’s current needs by giving them a brief on these updates and changes.
3. Maintain Decorum in the Office
The most significant perk of return-to-work interviews is that they help you maintain decorum and order in the office. The return-to-work interviews alert the employees that the managerial heads are keeping a regulatory check on their attendance and productivity rates.
How to Take Time Off for an Interview?
Most people find the return to work interviews time-consuming and perceive that it may interrupt regular working hours. However, in actuality, the return-to-work interviews are concise and precise. Within thirty minutes, you can sum up the interview.
Since the employee will join the office after the interview, you can ask him to come during the break or after office hours. However, the HR department usually manages the return-to-work interview in the working schedule. This implies that neither the interviewer nor the employee has to allocate extra time outside office hours.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Considering it as an interview, many people think that back-to-work meetings are formal. But instead, the return-to-work interviews are meant to be informal. They are conducted to have a deeper insight into the employees’ mental and physical status and inform them of the required potential changes.
The return-to-work interviews are neither necessary nor legal. However, their inclusion can make the absence management programs more effective and help maintain managerial decorum.
Conclusion
The return-to-work interviews have become a crucial part of most “absence management programs.” Not only do they prove helpful for the companies to maintain records, but they also help the employees to re-adjust to the office environment.
Employees can also refer to a guide for managing return-to-work interviews. It will assist them in preparing for the discussion and brief them on the questions they should ask. By the end of this article, we hope you have understood how to conduct a return-to-work interview. If you want to read more about such contact, you can visit our website.
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