It is crucial for a business/line manager to keep in contact with an absent employee. There is a myth that contacting an absent employee may been seen as harassment. The vast majority of employees who are sick really appreciate contact from their line manger and their colleagues.
The problem is often what to say to a long-term sick employee. Questions like ‘when will you be fit to return to work?’ are useful for a short-term absences of a few days or weeks, but are not very useful for someone on long-term sickness absence (usually 4 weeks or more). This is because the GP will decide on duration (although this can be based on little or no evidence-based medicine available to the GP).
Perhaps a better question is to ask ‘is there anything we (the business) can do to help?’ or ‘are you on the waiting list for any treatments, appointments or investigations?’ Trying to establish exactly what is preventing the employee from return to work is useful – is it stamina (might be able to do reduced hours), or posture (problem sitting for too long or standing for too long or walking), or concentration? This will help identify what modifications are worth considering.
Once this discussion with the employee has taken place, then a referral to occupational health is worthwhile. If there is no occupational health service to ask about a rehabilitation programme, you will need to contact the GP.
The easiest way of informing the GP is to give the absent employee a written note with what your business can provide for the employee, that the employee can hand to his/her GP. Alternatively, you can obtain medical consent from the employee to write to their GP and await a response, but this can often take many weeks or months to complete the process.