HR opinion please

[Dumbo20]

If a doctor wrote to you as a HR manager or Director and advised you to make a referral to OH and access to work for a member of staff with a disability would you

1. Respond to gp
2. Ignore letter
3. Make a referral to OH or access to work
4. Have meeting with employee
5. Do something else

Thanks in advance for your responses.

I run a team, and I'd do 4.

Small company so no OH. I'd want to talk to my report to work out how best to help.

Big organisation, dedicated OH and other support available - would definitely talk to the employee before doing ANYTHING else. Would only do something else (either speak to the line manager for context if I wasn't aware of any issues or make the requested referral) if the employee flatly refused to speak to HR about it (anxiety or similar).

Apologies I should have said this is a large uk company.

3 & 4

3 and 4 (3 would hopefully already have been done).

Thanks everyone for your help.

4... then maybe 3 after id spoken to the person and it was appropriate. Hope you are okay op!

Completely out of the blue?

4 first.

Depends, if the employee is signed off sick it would depend on the plan for contact as sometimes all contact is via occupational health to avoid employee feeling harassed by employer!

Family company so OH & from my husbands own experience I think Access to Work is something the employee deals with themselves.

I’d have expected the employee to have said something first so no 4 would be the only credible course of action.

This letter sent to HR is not out of the blue. HR is aware of a disability and has done nothing hence why GP getting involved.

HR lady took no action whatsoever after receiving gp letter. The gp letter was also referenced on return to work form. She did not respond to that either.

Should the manager not have dealt with it rather than HR?

Being aware of a disability doesn’t automatically mean HR has to ‘do’ anything. It depends on lots of other factors.

Is the person at work or not? Where’s the line manager in all this?

The person is in work - had a period of sickness. Doctors note referenced on the return to work. Line manager works in another location- 200 miles away

I didn’t mean where is the line manager physically! They should be managing this situation, including asking HR to make an OH referral if necessary.

It’s not clear who you are in this, and if you’d like some advice we’ll need more detail.

If the person is in work and has therefore been presumably deemed fit to work without reasonable adjustments, its hard to know what is being expected, whether an OH referral would be necessary or whether any adjustments necessary. Normally if someone is off sick with a disability and needs adjustments to return, they don’t return unless those are in place.

In my (large, UK) organisation it is the manager's responsibility to request the OH referral. If the GP wrote to HR then it would take a while to find someone who eould be able to identify the member of staff and their manager.
If it was actually sent by post then I'd be suprised if it ever got to someone who could do anything about it.

Hi OP,

I'm not a HR manager, but am currently studying for my CIPD foundation certificate in HR Practice.

If it was me, I'd first start with number 1. I think in this case, since the GP's letter has been ignored, that it does need to be acknowledged by HR as a matter of urgency. Within the letter, I would summarise what exactly is going to be done/put in place to help the employee.

I would then make an referral to both OH and Access To Work.

I would then have a meeting with the employee to talk though the steps you are taking and to reassure them that you're doing all you can to assist them.

Flowery and I have been in actual HR practice for more years than we probably care to remember.

As a result I can think of few reasons I would get into conversation with a GP about a staff member. Especially if the individual concerned had not given written permission for that. Does your course cover GDPR?!

People refer themselves to Access to work, not the employer, so the employee should do that themselves, and request an OH from their manager.

There’s no OH I’ve ever worked with that would take a referral without the employees express consent to the referral. A GP letter would not provide that. So wouldn’t refer to OH, and PPs are right, a workplace cannot refer to access to work the individual has to self refer so that option is out.

There’s absolutely no reasons to write back to the GP - to say what?

Like PP I would be contacting the manager to provide them with appropriate guidance after understanding the situation with them. And I can’t tell you what the appropriate guidance would be without that info, so maybe a meeting, maybe not.

@TitsOot4Xmas

Flowery and I have been in actual HR practice for more years than we probably care to remember.

Great. I'm so pleased for you.

Why would option 2 (ignore letter) ever be an option? Are you actually being serious here?

@TitsOot4Xmas

Flowery and I have been in actual HR practice for more years than we probably care to remember.

So? I've worked in organisations with the most inept HR departments. Those heading them up have also worked in HR for decades.

Why is it going to HR and not the line manager?