Almost no one is trained for this.
When someone on your team is off sick or hurt, you are one of the most powerful factors in whether they recover and come back well. No one hands you a script for that conversation. This page is the short version: the four moments that decide a return, and the evidence underneath. Free.
Recovery is decided at the workplace, not only the clinic.
Disability is biopsychosocial: the job, the team, and whether it feels safe to speak up shape recovery alongside the diagnosis. Of all those factors, the one with the most direct influence, and the one a worker actually talks to, is the supervisor. What you do in the first days, and what you say in a handful of conversations, moves the outcome more than almost any other single factor you control.
51%
Returned to work by four months when the supervisor acted early.
Against just 22% when the supervisor took none of the early supportive actions (Smith et al. 2017).
39%
Of returns relapsed when supervisor and worker solved problems together.
Against 62% without that joint problem-solving after the return (Arends et al. 2013).
Both findings name their peer-reviewed source. Here they are.Smith et al. 2017, Occup Environ Med (opens in a new tab)Arends et al. 2013, PLoS ONE (opens in a new tab)
Four conversations, handled well.
These are the four hardest moments a supervisor faces. Each one below says what good sounds like and what to avoid.
The full Supervisor Conversation Kit goes further, with the evidence and a checklist for each. It is a v1 draft still in revision and is not published yet, which this page says rather than implying otherwise.
The four moments.
The first call after a claim. Your first contact after someone goes off. Early, human, and practical, so they feel supported, not checked up on.
Staying at work. Keeping someone connected to work on real, modified duties, rather than defaulting to full time off. Work that fits is part of recovery.
The accommodation. Building the plan with the worker, matched to what they can actually do, rather than handing one down. The shared process is the active ingredient.
When the return isn't working. Reopening the plan early, before a bumpy return becomes a failed one.
You do not have to get this right from instinct.
The evidence behind all four moments is public, free, and names its sources so you can check it. The full kit follows when the board releases it.
This page is one of five