Do you know how to develop a return to work plan?
Research shows workers have poorer health outcomes if they are away from work for a long time. A new guide has practical advice and an easy-to-use template to help you plan and implement a successful return to work for an injured or ill worker.
Developing a return to work plan with an injured or ill worker is one of the best ways to support their recovery.
To help you navigate this process, Safe Work Australia and the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government have developed a guide and a step-by-step template for developing a successful return to work plan with an injured or ill worker.
Who is the guide for?
It’s for anyone who is responsible for developing a return to work plan with an injured or ill worker — supervisors, managers or return to work coordinators.
Even if you’re not directly involved in creating a return to work plan, it will help you understand the process and the support workers may need for a successful return to work.
Who needs a return to work plan?
Return to work planning need not just be for workers who have a workers’ compensation claim.
Many employers choose to develop a plan for any worker after an injury or illness, even those that arise outside of work.
Although the guide focuses on supporting a worker who has been away from work, you can also use it to help an injured worker who keeps working through their recovery and doesn’t need any time off.
What’s in the guide?
Return to work planning can be divided into 3 stages:
- Prepare
- Draft the plan
- Implement and review.
The guide sets out a helpful overview of these 3 stages with key actions and tips for each stage:
It then steps you through how to use it. It provides:
- more detailed advice about each stage on pages 1 to 10
- a return to work plan template to fill out from pages 11 to 18.
It has a return to work timeline from the Managing the relationship with an injured or ill worker during return to work guide, which provides tips and conversation starters for supervisors in small to medium businesses across this timeline.
The guide also has:
- helpful evidence-based ‘Did you knows?’
- pull out boxes with useful information — for example, about protecting a worker’s health or medical information, workers’ responsibilities for RTW and reminders of where you can go for help
- helpful checklists
- sections for you to write down notes about your conversations so you don’t have to rely on your memory later
- links to other resources on Safe Work Australia’s website.
What’s the relationship between the guide and your state or territory’s requirements?
The template will take you through the steps of developing a RTW plan and is designed to meet your obligations wherever you are located.
However, you should still check your own jurisdiction’s requirements as you may need to include some specific things in your plan.