Return to Work Interviews

Managing Stress-Related Absence Management

Absence management, and increasingly, stress-related absence management, is a growing problem for most employers.

WSM's "Return to Work Interview" is an effective way to initiate an early intervention in a new stress-related absence management situation.  Equally, return to work interviews is effective in addressing a long-term case of absenteeism.

A WSM return to work interview is a management initiated intervention process where one or our qualified occupational psychologists conducts an interview / assessment with a (line) manager and an employee to resolve a sickness absence problem.  The objective of the process is to determine the true and possibly underlying causes of the stress related sickness absence.  Crucially, the return to work interview will seek to determine what the employee's intentions and preferences are - whether or not they intend to return to work at all, or whether they wish to change role or departments.

Return-to-Work Interview Procedure

1. The return to work interview process starts when a manager wishes to use an independent and qualified third party to intervene in an absence management problem with a particular employee.
2. The manager contacts WSM to set up the return to work interview.
3. The manager simultaneously informs the employee that an independent assessor is to be brought in and gives the employee a written description of the process (prepared by WSM).
4. The WSM occupational psychologist first meets with employee's manager.
5. The occupational psychologist then meets with the employee to conduct an in-depth and structured assessment to understand their concerns and view of the situation.
6. The occupational psychologist will then meet briefly with the manager again for a short de-brief and initial summary.
7. WSM will then produce a written report of the return to work interview process, that will include practical and realistic recommendations and suggestions for reasonable adjustments that will lead to a resolution or a partial resolution of the problems raised.

Case Study - Working Relationships

Following a home accident, Paul was granted one week's sick leave. The following week, Paul did not report for work and had telephoned to say he had been unable to come in for the rest of the second week. Paul's manager accepted the situation and agreed to allow Paul an additional week sick leave. However, this continued for the next four weeks at which point Human Resources contacted Paul to try to ascertain the severity of the situation.

Human Resources felt that the injury was not severe enough to warrant four week's leave and asked for a new doctor's certificate to substantiate Paul's claims. After failing to provide this, the organisation felt that it had to take disciplinary action. This appeared to distress Paul a great deal and he was very concerned for his job.

Paul then agreed to partake in an informal assessment with a WSM Occupational Psychologist to see if there were any other issues involved in Paul's long term absence.

On further investigation, it was revealed that Paul and his manager had regular disputes regarding how to approach new work and projects and this often lead to very stressful work environments for both of them. This had continued for so long that it was considered, by Paul's colleagues, to be normal working practice between Paul and his manager. However, it was unknown that Paul had started to suffer from stress-related illness including anxiety and mild depression. Paul suggested he even saw the injury as a positive release from his work.

Discussions continued with Paul and his manager and a report then produced to outline the main issues. It appears that Paul and his manager clearly had very different personalities and working methods and as such their discussions and meetings had become a forum for arguments rather than finding solutions to the work problems.

Strategies to improve relations between Paul and his manager were suggested and Paul returned to work within two weeks of the assessment date. Paul feels that the interventions have helped him to feel valued and respected in his role, while also being respectful of the obvious personality differences between him and his manager.

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