There are a number of things at little or no cost to help employees return to work at the earliest appropriate opportunity without harm to themselves or their colleagues.
The crux of rehabilitation is to be ‘actively involved’ when someone is off sick, rather than to passively await a sick note to expire before intervening. This is quite a cultural shift for many businesses as many employees and employers have perceived the sick note to be ‘untouchable’.
Whilst this is not true, the solution is not about challenging or questioning the validity of the sick note, but rather, a willingness on the part of a business to look at temporary modifications to an employee’s job to allow a return to some work and for both employers and employees to realise that this will have long-term gains.
There may be some situations when the incentives to return to work are outweighed by the disincentives (e.g. part-time work might mean less money than being off sick), but, on the whole, the advantages of rehabilitation outweigh the disadvantages and the process becomes easier as your business gains experience in rehabilitation.