How to stop employees getting stuck on reasonable adjustments

Employees can get ‘stuck’ on reasonable adjustments that are no longer needed if employers don’t proactively manage the situation.

Reasonable adjustments have a vital role to play when it comes to supporting people with health conditions to remain in work. However, once someone no longer needs the adjustment, it’s important to phase it out before it becomes embedded or expected.

Perhaps someone who has recovered from back pain was taken off heavy duties for so long they no longer see this as part of their role. Or maybe someone who no longer needs to work from home is refusing to come back into the office, long after the medical need has passed.

Critical to ensuring employees don’t become ‘stuck’ on reasonable adjustments is proactively managing the situation. Our medical director, Dr Bernard Yew, shares his top five tips, including managing expectations and addressing non-medical barriers.

Five ways to stop employees getting stuck on reasonable adjustments

1. Manage expectations from the outset

One of the most difficult adjustments to remove is the option for homeworking. This can be hugely beneficial while people are struggling with issues ranging from joint pain while they wait for an operation to the side effects of cancer treatment. They can take extra breaks as needed, adjust their start and stop times and avoid the strain of commuting.

However, if it’s not made clear that the adjustment will be reviewed and removed once no longer necessary, for example after their operation or completion of their treatment, many individuals will understandably rebuild their life around their newfound flexibility. They might end up changing their childcare arrangements, selling their car or moving further away.

All of which means it’s critical that expectations about why the adjustment is being put in place and why it will be removed once no longer medically required are needed up front. That way employees are less likely to create other, non-medical, barriers to having the adjustment removed further down the line.

2. Regularly review reasonable adjustments

If adjustments are left in place unchecked for too long, they could become perceived as a change in contract. We’ve seen examples of where someone with temporary backpain was put on light duties for four weeks but was still on this restriction three years later, by which time they didn’t consider heavy duties to be part of their role.

Employers that don’t regularly review adjustments can also find that less challenging departments become inundated with people on adjustments or end up with so many people unable to do core duties that the adjustments cease to be reasonable. It’s therefore essential that any adjustments are regularly reviewed to meet both the individuals and business needs.

Managers should be encouraged to check in with employees every few weeks, to ask how they’re coping and discuss any change in situation, such as an external medical review, which could be a trigger to discuss the existing adjustments. If someone’s condition has worsened stronger adjustments might needed. If their condition has improved the manager should be prepared to discuss reducing or even removing adjustments.

3. Consider all barriers to removing adjustments

All kinds of barriers can arise to make someone resistant to having their adjustments removed. They might perceive their commute as being too much or say it will impact on their caring duties or cost too much to start getting the train again. However, if there isn’t a medical reason for the adjustment the employee may be in breach of contract.

Employees who appear recovered, but insist they still aren’t medically fit to have their adjustments removed, might need to be referred into occupational health to establish whether or not there are any underlying medical issues. Biopsychosocial models can also be used to consider not just the physical, but also the social and psychological barriers at play.

For example, if someone believes that their colleagues will be hostile to having them back after so long or catastrophising that going back to what they were doing will make them sick again, the individual can be helped to process and overcome these concerns. If there are new barriers to returning, such as depression after cancer treatment or fear of certain movements following an operation, the individual can also be helped to overcome these.

4. Ease the employee off reasonable adjustments

Forcing the issue and trying to abruptly remove a recovered employee’s adjustments can provoke the employee into quitting. Although this could be said to resolve the situation, the whole point of reasonable adjustments is to support people to stay in work and retain valued talent. It’s therefore important to talk to them about any non-medical barriers to return.

If they can’t face a two-hour commute every morning, for example, a compromise could be found by allowing them to start work an hour earlier every morning to more than halve their travel time. If they don’t want to do heavy duties in the morning, because their medication hasn’t kicked in, they could have these scheduled for later in the day.

If they’re worried about getting sick again, a risk assessment could be carried out before their return to identify and address any potential problems. If there are social barriers, such as resistance to giving up homeworking due to wanting to meet their children from school, the organisation might have to look at these non-medical barriers. For example, by giving the employees a little more flexibility or time to put new childcare arrangements in place.

5. Promote the benefits of returning to full duties

The longer an employee continues to work with restrictions, the less likely they are to return to a normalised way of working. As we saw during the pandemic, people who were isolated at home due to one health issue could easily develop a secondary health issue, because of becoming more inactive or socially isolated at home.

Similarly, if someone on lighter duties due to a short-term issue isn’t returned to full duties once recovered, they could eventually become so deconditioned they can’t return to full duties even if they wanted. If they are taken away from client-facing work, due to acute anxiety, but not reintroduced to this as soon as they can cope again, they could lose the confidence to ever do this again in future.

It’s therefore important for occupational health and employers to help employees understand that the sooner they can get back to normality the better for their all-round health. If employees are resistant to returning to the physical office, it can also help to communicate the physical benefits of becoming more active during the day and the mental health benefits of becoming less isolated. They will also get to experience more personal growth from bouncing ideas off others and seeing how other people think and handle things differently.

The more you can help employees to understand why removing restrictions that are no longer medically required is also in their interests, the more motivated they will be to support this.

Panel Discussion: How to stop employees getting stuck on reasonable adjustments | 9.30am Tuesday 26 November

Join our clinical team of experts as they take your questions and discuss why employees can get stuck on ‘temporary’ adjustments and how best to get them back to full duties.

How can PAM Group help?

We can help you to get employees off reasonable adjustments in the following ways:

PAM OH Solutions – Seamless access to multi-disciplinary clinical teams who can assess employees and consult with managers to determine whether or not adjustments are still needed and whether or not there are any other underlying barriers to removing these.

Absence Review – To look at legacy cases to determine how best to return employees to full duties or retire them on grounds of ill health or beach of contract. Including use of biopsychosocial models to help employees overcome secondary barriers to returning.

PAM Wellness (EAP) -Round-the-clock access to clinical and professional advisors, who can provide counselling and support for employees struggling with stress or anxiety related to coming off reasonable adjustments and help to process these.

Physio Information Line (PhIL)- Helpline staffed by experienced physiotherapists, who can provide advice and exercises to help people who have become deconditioned after a long period of reasonable adjustments return to full conditioning.

If you would like to discuss the opportunities for reducing sickness absence across your organisation, please contact us to set up a free consultion via info@pamgroup.co.uk