Introduction
Managing employee wellbeing after sickness is key to a safe and supportive workplace. Once a sickness is added that requires a return to work, the workflow waits and triggers on the next working day after the sickness has ended.
The employee first completes their section of the form using predefined questions, then their manager receives it for review and confirmation, then HR to review and sign off - ensuring a smooth, documented, and compliant return to work process.
We have an alternative version of this where the Return to work is triggered as soon as the sickness is added.
How it works
1. Sickness is added
A sickness record is logged that requires a Return to Work completion.
2. Initial delay
The workflow delays until one day after the sickness end date, or if one day sickness, tomorrow.
3. Check work pattern
After the delay, the workflow checks the employee’s work pattern for “today”:
If today is a non-working day:
The workflow delays until tomorrow and checks again until a working day.
If today is a working day:
If the work pattern includes a start time, the workflow delays until two hours after the start time.
If no work pattern exists, the workflow delays until 11:00 AM.
4. Check for active sickness
After that delay, the workflow checks if there is still a sickness record covering today:
If sickness is still active:
The workflow delays until tomorrow and returns to Step 3.If no sickness is active:
The workflow triggers the Return to work process.
Return to work process
Employee receives a task to complete the first section of the return to work form.
Once the employee has completed all mandatory sections and ticked the 'Confirmation' tick box at the bottom, the option to 'Sign' will then become available.
The manager then receives an email confirming the employee has completed this, and will have a task to review and confirm.
Once completed, the HR team receive the whole form to review and sign off.
Once all mandatory items have been completed, they will then be able to 'Sign' and complete the task and therefore, the return to work workflow will end.
Screen customisation
This workflow comes with predefined questions and set permissions.
You have the ability to edit these questions using the Screen Designer. When making changes to the fields on this screen, it’s important to also update the Screen Variants.
Click here for an article on how to create or edit a screen, and scroll to the bottom of the page to learn more about Screen Variants.
When editing a screen that is related to a workflow, it is important to ensure that any requirements are taken into account. Please check the Requirements section of this article.
How to get this Workflow
This workflow is available for organisations on the Elite and Enterprise tier. You can find it in the Workflow Hub.
When you deploy it, a Return to Work Form screen will be added to the Employee Profile template - unless one already exists with the exact same name.
If your organisation already has a screen with this name, a new one will not be created. You can either rename/delete your existing screen, or you may just need to update it slightly to match the below requirements in order for the workflow to function properly (see the list below).
Requirements
When a screen is automatically added during workflow deployment, all required fields, permissions, and best-practice recommendations are included by default.
This section only applies if you already have this screen or plan to customise the preloaded version. It outlines which elements must remain unchanged for the workflow to function correctly.
Required Screen Variants
Variant Name | Notes |
Employee | In this variant we define what the review will see and edit from the task. Here you want to select 'Edit' for all the questions you wish the employee to answer. |
Manager | In this variant we define what the review will see and edit from the task. Here you want to select 'Edit' for all the questions you wish the manager to answer. |
Admin | In this variant we define what the review will see and edit from the task. Here you want to select 'Edit' for all the questions you wish the admin to answer. |
Best Practice
We advise for this screen to not be editable under any non-admin permission schemes. Once a return to work is complete, their answers and name should not be edited.
Anything that needs completing will be done so within the task, therefore this screen can be read only for employees (and maybe managers) if they want to review for future reference.