Supervisor – take action

Agree on work accommodation together with the employee and support them

Working, successes and return to work are important for your employee’s recovery. Your employee can continue working even if their work ability has declined. It is all about making the job’s demands and opportunities match the employee’s work ability. You will succeed in this if you accommodate their job and support them.

What is work accommodation?

Work accommodation means adjusting or modifying work tasks or working conditions and supporting an employee’s resources when psychological or physical symptoms impair their work performance. When work needs to be accommodated for physical reasons, you and your employee know, for example, what your employee is supposed to do if they are not allowed to lift heavy loads. You may even have in place instructions on these types of physical adjustments. You can accommodate work for mental health reasons following exactly the same principles and agree on related practices.

Discuss with your employee and suggest work accommodation whenever your employee’s work ability has declined or when they are returning to work after a long absence due to illness. Avoid making assumptions on the need for accommodation and be sure to agree on any accommodations together with your employee. Ask questions, listen to the employee, discuss the need for accommodation and make proposals.

This is how you can accommodate your employee’s work

When accommodating an employee’s work, you can, for example:

• Reduce your employee’s workload: limit work tasks, put customer interaction on hold, etc. 
• Reinforce resources, such as your employee’s opportunities to influence their work and pace of work. 
• Increase the flexibility of working hours or agree on changing the working hours for a fixed term. 
• Give the employee the opportunity to concentrate and work in peace; provide an appropriate work space for your employee. Why not try remote work? 
• Facilitate work-related social situations by, for example, proposing a transfer to a smaller team or ensuring that the employee is not left alone in a situation involving customers. 
• Create good working conditions so that your employee has the energy to control their mood and emotions. 
• Make time for conversations where you support your employee’s self-confidence and motivation. 
• Agree with the employee on a support person at the workplace who they can turn to if required. 
• Monitor your employee’s situation and talk about it with them; if necessary, make more adjustments to their work.

If these measures carried out at the workplace are not enough, reach out to occupational health services. An occupational health nurse, physician or psychologist can help you to, for example, conduct an occupational health negotiation, i.e. a discussion with the employee, and provide guidance in applying for support measures, such as the partial sickness allowance. If these are not enough, turn to us. Your employee can apply to Ilmarinen for vocational rehabilitation, for instance a work trial, where they try doing their old job in a new way or doing an entirely new job.

The mere knowledge that work can be accommodated may help

If your employee only has mild psychological symptoms, you telling them that these kinds of accommodations are possible at your workplace can already make them feel better. Once you have talked to them, agree together when you will discuss their situation again. That shows your employee that you are there for them without them needing to ask you for help. Be sure to hold the agreed discussions even if everything is going or seems to be going well. If the employee’s situation gets worse, meet earlier.

Propose accommodating the work and adjust it preferably too soon rather than too late. When you make frequent adjustments to work at your workplace, they become part of your normal activities. That way you and the other supervisors can ease your employees’ concerns and fears of being labelled if they have difficulty coping and are struggling with mental health issues.

When your employee is able to do their work and gets to experience the joy of succeeding, work provides an important support and resource for them.