Module 3: One-day workshop "Illness and reintegration in the Netherlands"

How to Deal with your employees with sick leave?

As a manager you have to deal with sick leave of employees, sometimes with long-term outages. In the Netherlands, the Gatekeeper Improvement Act (Wet Verbetering Poortwachter) will result in a number of, mainly time-dependent, obligations that must be met to prevent any wage sanction from the government agency called UWV.

How do you deal with the flood of regulations, your role, tasks and challenges as a case manager in the supervision of the employee who has reported sick? And what contemporary approaches are there to prevent absence (due to physical or psychological causes)?

Content

When reporting sick, the key is: what can the employee still do instead of what can’t he do? In this workshop, explore how to have a good conversation in equality about the mutual interests, needs and wishes with attention to the employee’s self-motivation and own responsibility.

Topics

In this workshop we deal with:

• Relevant Dutch legislation and regulations, force field and roles in the event of short and long-term absenteeism. Employers can conduct (forms of) “their own control” within a “customized scheme” or a “safety net scheme”. What do these legal models mean and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
• UWV assessment framework, role of company doctor, case manager and prevention manager, in relation to the manager and the HR department
• Creating problem analysis and Plan of Approach (‘Plan van Aanpak’), process management and guidance in the resuming of work by the employee. Consequences of the Labour Market Balance Act (WAB).
• “Difficult situations”: how do you deal with employees who you feel “flee the disease” after a difficult performance or assessment interview, for example? How do you facilitate a faltering reintegration? What if someone refuses suitable work?
• Effects of labour conflicts and how to resolve them with the least possible emphasis on the disability question. Prevent medicalisation of what is often (but not always) a non-medical problem and quickly arrive at (a conflict diagnosis) and an intervention plan, with the use of team-based interventions, for example.
• Prevent absenteeism effectively: focus on the sustainable employability and life phase of the employee (eg informal care) and work-life balance, recognize signs of work stress and the characteristics of burnout.
• Working conditions: rules for RI&E, home and telecommuting places, protective equipment and disease prevention; setting up a vitality policy at all levels (for the individual, the team and the organization). Sustainable Employability Policy: what does it consist of and how do you develop it, with which stakeholders?

Benefits from the programme

After completing this course with a maximum of eight participants, in which we also work with your own cases, you have up-to-date knowledge of Dutch employment law and HR instruments in the event of illness and reintegration of employees.

You develop skills in keeping absenteeism – and advice interviews and you will be provided with tools for the concrete solution for the cases you brought in during the workshops. We also look at preventing and medicalizing absenteeism and promoting the sustainable employability of the employee.

A certificate of achievement is provided.