SHRM26 Debrief · Health & Wellness · #2698

Re-Engage, Rebuild, Return: A Better Path to Work After Illness or Injury

with Laura McCormick

& Bryon Bass

& Julie Hocker

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~72 min, distilled

return to workstay at workdisability employment

"The real test of workplace culture happens in that messy middle, when the paperwork is confusing and the prognosis is unclear."

What it was about

Stay-at-work and return-to-work is not a compliance checkbox but a defining act of organizational culture; early, coordinated, human-centered communication between employer, employee, and provider keeps people attached to work, protects the business, and dramatically improves the odds of a successful return.

By the numbers

By week 12, [likelihood of return] drops to about half

how quickly the odds of returning to work decline the longer an employee stays on leave

less than 5%

likelihood of return to work once a worker enters long-term disability or Social Security

one in five adults is experiencing a mental health condition

prevalence of mental health conditions among American adults

Key notes

Build a formal return-to-work program defined as a repeatable operating model with clear ownership, not just a policy line in the employee handbook.
Act early: the longer someone stays out of work, the less likely they are to return, so intervene within the first weeks of a leave rather than waiting for a crisis point.
Extend return-to-work practices to non-occupational (non-workers'-comp) leaves, not just workplace injuries, to avoid an equity gap in how employees are supported.

The contrarian takeBringing an injured or restricted employee back to work on modified duty does not generally increase workers' comp claim risk. Refusing to let them return is actually the bigger legal liability, since employees who are denied a return they medically requested are the ones who sue.

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Reach out to any employee on leave this week: don't wait for them to come back healed; offer temporary reassignment or modified duty now.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

By week 12 out of work, an employee's odds of returning drop to half — so our return-to-work process needs to start in week one, not month three.

Watch out for

Assuming a written policy in the handbook counts as a 'formal' program when there is no actual coordinated, repeatable process behind it.
Letting return-to-work protocols apply only to workers' comp/occupational injuries while non-occupational leaves go unsupported, creating an equity gap.
Believing the myth that bringing an employee back with restrictions guarantees a workers' comp claim: this is generally untrue when communication and accommodation processes are in place.

Fun fact · Julie Hocker

Julie Hocker testified before the EEOC in 2021 on the civil rights impact of COVID-19 before becoming Assistant Secretary of Labor.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperUnwell at Work: Addressing the Health Challenges No One Talks AboutExtends the same mislabeling problem past formal leave into everyday undiagnosed health issues.⇄ The counterpointWhen Employee Relations Isn’t Enough: A CLEAR Framework for Protected Class InvestigationsReminds you that reaching out early still needs the rigor a real investigation requires.✦ The unexpected oneCommunicating with Impact...for Results! The Art of Tactful and Diplomatic CommunicationThe outreach this session recommends is really just a hard conversation, done with tact.