How Employers Can Help Disabled Employees Return to Work After a Long Absence

How employers manage a return to work for disabled employees is very important. It is a topic that is often overlooked and so we want to shine some light on it in this blog. With some guidance and support too.

A lot of people who are disabled are not born with a disability. Many people become disabled in their adult life. This means that many people become disabled while they are working and in a pre-established career. 

Becoming disabled while in employment can be distressing and traumatising for many people. Whatever the nature of their disability, such a change can take a lot of adjustment and processing. 

This means that coming back to work after a long absence can be very difficult for disabled employees. 

As an employer, it is critical that you support your disabled employees as best as possible when they are returning to work. How you approach and deal with this transition period can determine:

• how happy they are at work
• how their job performance is
• how long they are willing to stay in the role

If this transition is managed poorly, you could very easily lose a valuable member of staff. 

Luckily, there are ways that you can avoid this negative situation. Handling the return to work properly can help everyone stay safe and happy within their position at work.

There are 3 main things to consider when it comes to appropriately managing a disabled employee’s return to work, and they are as follows. 

Phased Return to Work

For many people who have been disabled for a long time and for many people who have recently acquired a disability, coming back to work after a long absence may be intimidating and uncomfortable. It is possible that people will feel easily fatigued and overwhelmed during long days if they have been absent from work for a while.

As such, one of the best ways to handle a disabled employee’s return to work is to follow a “phased return”. 

Phased returns to work can take many forms but the basic premise is that an employee can return to their job without doing full-time hours. This might look like working 5 days a week but only until lunchtime, it could be one day in and one day off, or it could be only working a certain number of days a week. 

Whatever way works for the employee should be the priority. Each disability is different and each period of absence will have been different. Employers should, therefore, tailor care and support to each individual member of staff.

Reasonable Adjustments

Employers are required under The Equality Act of 2010 to make necessary Reasonable Adjustments for disabled employees. 

It is your duty to make Reasonable Adjustments if your disabled employee is being placed at a significant disadvantage compared to other, non-disabled employees. 

Examples of reasonable adjustments can include:

• The changing of a physical feature to provide accessibility, such as lift access
• Provision of extra equipment, such as induction loops or interpreters
• The opportunity to work remotely
• Changed working hours

You are legally required to make these changes if:

1. You are feasibly able to, and
2. If they will make a significant difference to how the disabled employee is able to do their job. 

Employees are likely to need some Reasonable Adjustments after a long period of absence. And where it is possible, you legally must provide them. If your employee feels they cannot return to work because of a lack of provisions, this can be seen as discrimination in the U.K. 

Liaise With Third-Party Support 

As an employer, you can’t always be expected to be able to provide the support that a disabled employee might need without help. There may be financial blocks or a lack of understanding that might come into play at this stage. This is where third-party support will come to work with you both. 

There are different schemes that can aid a disabled employee in returning to work. Most notably, the Access to Work scheme. This government scheme can help employers financially when it comes to paying for extra equipment and resources for disabled employees. 

The main aim of Access to Work is to allow disabled people to stay in active employment, and so they will help you with the resources and support you need to keep your disabled employees in their roles. This could include support with things such as: 

• Transportation costs
• Special aids and equipment
• Support workers
• Changes to physical premises

And so on. 

Finding the Right Return to Work Support as an Employer

There are also avenues for support for you as an employer that are outside the realm of finance and funding. If you aren’t sure how to support a disabled employee returning to work, you might need basic advice and guidance on how to manage things appropriately and with care. 

One of the first things you should do is familiarise yourself with The Equality Act so that you can know exactly how your employee needs to be treated at work. 

You can then look into signing up to be a Disability-Confident employer, a scheme run by the U.K. government to encourage employers to think differently about disability and to “ take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people.”

For advice and guidance on all of these issues, you can find everything you need in one place on Careers with Disabilities. We have plenty of resources and guides for employers hiring and employing disabled people. 

You can find everything you need to know about Reasonable Adjustments, funding options, accessibility, and so on, right here. All there to help you become an inclusive, diverse, and accessible employer.

As we all should be in 2022 and beyond.