More often absent. More often due to mental health.

Absenteeism in our companies keeps rising. By 2023, total sick leave will have risen to as much as 10% of total working time! The figures are especially historically high in terms of medium-term (longer than one month) and long-term (longer than one year) absenteeism. The increase is particularly prevalent for mental disorders, such as burnout. Unfortunately, the reversal of these figures is not yet in sight.

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These historically high absenteeism figures obviously have a major impact on our organisations. People drop out. As a result, colleagues experience a higher workload. This increases their risk of stress-related complaints and absenteeism. Moreover, strengthening the team through new recruitment is not obvious. After all, the labour market is tight. As a result, many teams and organisations end up in a negative vicious circle.

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Get to work!

How do you handle this as a manager or HR? What is crucial, is that you take action! After all, there is a chance that dropping out team members will create a huge workload. Making it feel like you really can't invest any more time in prevention and reintegration. Avoid this mistake. Make it a priority. This is the only way to break this vicious cycle. It is best to take initiatives towards the team and towards the employee who has fallen ill.

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The team needs your guidance as well as someone who listens. Discuss with them what is feasible and what is not. And help them make choices about what is urgent, non-urgent, important and unimportant. Consult regularly with the team members. Be sure to discuss how the person is doing. What is energising and energising within the work. And what he or she needs. Set aside more time for this than you did in the past.

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Step by step

For the employee who has fallen ill, it is impossible to predict by default what he or she needs. Chances are, however, that, especially at the beginning of the illness process, there will be a need to deconnect from work. Wish the person well. And indicate that you are available if he or she wants to talk, but leave it at that for now. Feel free to send flowers or a card as well. You can also ask what the person would like in terms of contact, with you, colleagues, HR, ... (this dares to change in the course of the recovery process, so don't hold someone to an answer that was given shortly after the breakdown). Be sure to inform the person about the recovery options you offer as an employer (coaching, occupational physician, resilience-building programmes, etc.).

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As the person is more and more recovered, it is especially important to intensify contact back. And engage in dialogue about recovery-enhancing work. Restarting in exactly the same circumstances as those in which the person fell ill are not a smart plan. Dare to engage in dialogue about the causes of dropout. And what is needed to restart in a sustainable way.

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Your support line: reintegration expertise

Want to know more about this? Better Minds offers various training courses for managers or HR on stress detection, prevention and reintegration facilitation. Would you rather work with one of our coaches? They will guide you fully tailored to tackle these challenges. Or let us support you in developing a prevention and reintegration policy.

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Contact us and we will discuss your prevention and reintegration needs together.

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