Phasing Back Into Work
Success Factors
How to Create a Workable Plan
Frequently Asked Questions about Employees with Cancer Phasing Back
Trouble-shooting Guide
To make a phase back succeed, the following issues need to be considered:
1) Previous Organizational Experience
Most organizations have had experience with people phasing back into work after having children or taking disability leave. Check with Human Resources to see what arrangements have been made in the past. It's possible that your organization has a formal ﾓreturn to workﾔ program that would make things easier for both your employee and you.
2) Appropriate Schedules and Coverage
At different times during the employee's phase back, he or she may want to work fewer or more hours or work at home. You and the employee will want to talk about her needs and discuss workload and schedules.
It will be up to you to assess the staffing needs and workflow of your work group. Then, together with your employee you should make sure there is adequate coverage for:
- The time(s) of day when customers, clients, or coworkers typically need the employee the most
- Regular scheduled meeting times
- The two of you can discuss how work will be accomplished while he or she is phasing back.
- What work will he or she be doing?
- If he or she is working part-time, how will the rest of the job be accomplished?
- Delegated to other employees?
- Decision that it not be done?
3) Communication
You and your employee should jointly come up with a written communication plan that gives the days and times he or she plans to be in your organization's office and in his or her home office and any regularly-scheduled treatments or medical appointments. You should also decide together how and when you'll be in touch with one another when he or she is working at home and how and when others who need to communicate with him or her can do so.
Communication techniques include:
- Face-to-face on days in the office
- Socializing outside of work
- "Gone Telecommuting" sign
If possible, the employee should attend regularly scheduled meetings and training, either live or by conference call.
Make sure he or she knows what is going on in the office. One suggestion is to help your employee find a partner, a co-worker who can help keep him or her stay connected to the informal communication channels.
4) Co-workers
During the phase back period, some tasks and responsibilities may be assigned to others in the department or work team who might already feel overworked. It will be up to you to make sure this is done fairly. This phase-back period can also create opportunities for cross-training and employee development which may be valued by co-workers.
5) Development Opportunities
An employee phasing back into work after a medical leave for cancer treatment should have access to the same training opportunities and developmental assignments that others in the department have. They should:
- Be assigned to committees and task forces
- Be involved with other activities that allow them to stay visible.
6) Teamwork and Cross Training
An employee phasing back into work can still be an integral part of a team even if he or she is not in the office on a daily basis. If possible, the team should have meetings when everyone is available, even if some participate by phone. If the employee has unique skills, he or she will do well to cross-train one or more co-workers in key areas and make sure these co-workers know where important information they might need is kept.
How to Create a Workable Plan
A schedule will work best if you let the employee take the lead in figuring out what will work best in terms of the number of days he or she is able to work at different stages of the phase back. Here are some possible plans:
- Right after a medical leave an employee might want to phase back gradually, perhaps starting by working three shorter days a week: one day at home and two in the office.
- When the employee feels ready to increase the amount of time working, he or she might choose to increase the number of days a week or the number of hours he or she works each day.
- Having the ability to mix ad hoc part-time, flex-time and work-at-home can help an employee return to full productivity more easily.
Frequently Asked Questions about Employees with Cancer Phasing back
Q. Can one expect an employee who is phasing back to full-time employment after cancer treatment to have a set schedule for his or her return?
A. An employee who is phasing back after cancer treatment may give you a set schedule for return, but due to the nature of cancer, it may change. He or she may have a set-back; may be more fatigued than he or she thought they would be. It is important to be flexible during this time and have a lot of back-up support in place.
Q. What expectations are there for an employee phasing back to maintain communications on a scheduled day off?
A. A lot depends on the requirements of the position and the communications practices that you and your employee put in place. Best practices include:
- Identify a back-up person who will handle questions for customers on days or parts of days that the employee is not working
- Establish a process for having you contact the employee when there are critical issues that need immediate attention. NOTE: The goal is to do this only on rare occasions when there is no one else who can address the issue.
Employees phasing back into regular full-time or part-time employment can develop various communications procedures with their customers, clients and co-workers. This can include checking voice mail once a day on regularly scheduled days off. Under this scenario, employees could leave extended voice mail and electronic mail instructions about their schedule and explain their voice mail checking procedures.
Q. Does an employee phasing back into regular full-time or part-time work have to work the same schedule each day and each week?
A. Even if the arrangement were not ad hoc, the answer to that question would depend on the nature of the job. Ideally the employee will be afforded the maximum amount of flexibility necessary to accommodate her recovery schedule. At the same time, you'll want to make sure that the work gets done. If you are able to arrange coverage on an ad hoc basis scheduled around the employee needs, he or she won't have to work the same schedule each day and each week. If the person providing the coverage needs a more consistent schedule, complete flexibility may not be possible.
Q. How can an employee who is phasing back while recovering from cancer stay visible?
A. It will be easier for the employee if he or she can arrange the schedule to include being at as many regularly-scheduled meetings, trainings and other functions as possible. This won't always be possible. Otherwise the employee should stay "visible" through frequent phone and e-mail contact and by attending meetings via audio conference when it isn't possible to attend in person.
Trouble-shooting Guide
No matter how well you and your employee have planned and implemented the phase back after treatment, from time to time breakdowns do occur. Below are some common breakdowns you might experience:
BREAKDOWN: Co-workers complain that they "never know when the employee is going to be in."
INTERVENTIONS:
- Ask the employee to post his or her schedule in a convenient location (near the sign in-sign out board if you have one) or send an email with the schedule to members of the team.
BREAKDOWN: The employee experiences a set-back during the phase-back period and has to take another medical leave.
INTERVENTIONS:
- Be prepared for this contingency by having a good back-up plan with lots of redundancy.
- Be as supportive of your employee as possible. Think how disappointed he or she will be about the set-back.
- Regularly offer cross-training opportunities so that anyone with critical skills will always have a back-up in times of illness or injury.
BREAKDOWN: The employee phasing back feels that he or she isn't being taken seriously by colleagues partly because of the cancer and partly because of the reduced schedule.
INTERVENTIONS:
- Make sure that others deal with the employee directly rather than going around him or her.
- Convey by your own words, attitudes and assignments that you regard the employee as a valuable part of the team.
Approach
