Occupational Health Awareness Week; our HR insights
Occupational Health Awareness Week is a timely opportunity for business owners and leaders to look beyond simply managing sickness absence and think more strategically about the relationship between health, work and business performance.
For smaller businesses, employee health can feel like a difficult area to navigate. You may not have an in-house HR team, an occupational health department or the resources of a large organisation. When someone is struggling with their physical or mental health, it can be tempting to deal with each situation as it arises.
But occupational health is not simply about what happens when someone is off sick.
Done well, it can help businesses understand how health affects an individual's ability to work, identify appropriate adjustments, support people to remain in work or return after absence, and help employers meet their legal responsibilities.
For SME leaders, understanding when and how to use occupational health can therefore make a significant difference.
What is occupational health?
Occupational health is a specialist medical service focused on the relationship between health and work.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) describes occupational health as covering both how work and the working environment can affect people's physical and mental health, and how an individual's health can affect their ability to do their job.
That distinction is important.
Occupational health is not there simply to tell an employer whether an employee is "fit" or "unfit". A good occupational health assessment can provide practical, work-focused advice about issues such as:
how a health condition may affect someone's ability to carry out their role
whether someone may be able to remain in work with adjustments
what adjustments could support a return to work
whether a phased return may be appropriate
whether there are particular workplace factors that may be contributing to a health problem
whether further medical or specialist support may be appropriate
how an employer can manage a situation safely and fairly.
ACAS recommends considering occupational health where an employee is struggling with their physical or mental health, returning after a period of sickness absence, requires reasonable adjustments, or where an employer needs support managing health and safety issues.
What's the importance of occupational health?
For a small business, one person's absence can have a disproportionate impact.
If you have a team of 10 people, losing one experienced employee is very different operationally from losing one person in a workforce of 10,000.
There can be consequences for:
productivity
customer service
workload for colleagues
recruitment and temporary cover
management time
employee retention
morale
business continuity.
But the answer isn't simply to reduce sickness absence at all costs.
The better question is:
"What can we reasonably do to help people stay well, remain in work where appropriate, and return safely when they have been unwell?"
This is where occupational health can add real value.
Government research into employer approaches to workplace health has highlighted the role of occupational health provision in managing sickness absence, supporting return to work and retaining employees.
Occupational health isn't just for long-term absence
One common misconception is that you only need occupational health when someone has been off work for months.
That isn't necessarily the case.
An occupational health referral may be useful when:
Someone has a long-term health condition
An employee may have a condition that affects their ability to work but does not necessarily prevent them from working.
An occupational health professional can help an employer understand the functional impact of the condition and consider potential workplace adjustments.
Someone has recurring short-term absence
Repeated periods of absence can be challenging for an SME, particularly where there is a genuine underlying health issue.
Rather than focusing solely on attendance figures, an occupational health assessment can help establish whether there is an underlying health condition and whether workplace changes could help.
Acas advises employers to consider whether an absence may be disability-related and whether reasonable adjustments are appropriate when reviewing absence.
Someone is struggling with their mental health
Mental health is an important part of occupational health.
Employers have legal duties around work-related stress, and HSE guidance states that employers must assess the risks of stress at work and take action to manage them.
HSE's Management Standards provide a practical framework for looking at six areas associated with work-related stress:
Demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
For managers, this is a useful reminder that mental health isn't solely an individual's responsibility. Sometimes the most effective intervention is to look at the work itself.
Someone is returning after sickness absence
Returning to work is often a process rather than a single event.
An employee may be medically well enough to return but still need temporary changes to hours, duties, workload or working arrangements.
Government guidance on fit notes encourages employers to have health and work discussions with employees and consider changes that could support them to stay in or return to work. Occupational health can be particularly useful in more complex cases.
What about reasonable adjustments?
This is one of the most important areas for business leaders to understand.
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments where a disabled employee, worker or applicant would otherwise be placed at a substantial disadvantage.
Acas explains that reasonable adjustments can include changes to working arrangements, working patterns, responsibilities, equipment, the workplace or support provided.
Examples might include:
altered working hours
a phased return
additional or different breaks
changes to someone's working environment
home or hybrid working where appropriate
adapted equipment
reallocating certain tasks
additional support or supervision
allowing time away from work for medical treatment.
There is no universal list of adjustments because what is reasonable depends on the individual circumstances.
That is why good conversations matter.
Employers should not make assumptions about what someone can or cannot do. Acas recommends listening to the individual, understanding how their condition affects them and considering medical advice where necessary.
An occupational health assessment can be one useful source of that advice.
A fit note isn't the same as an occupational health assessment
Managers sometimes understandably confuse the two.
A fit note is provided by an eligible healthcare professional and gives advice about whether someone is "not fit for work" or "may be fit for work", including possible functional adjustments.
An occupational health assessment, on the other hand, is specifically focused on the relationship between an individual's health and their work.
The two can therefore complement each other.
For example, a fit note might indicate that someone could return to work with amended duties or altered hours. An occupational health assessment could then help an employer explore how those changes might work in the context of the employee's particular role.
The key is to use the information available to have a constructive conversation about what could work.
What should SME leaders expect from an occupational health report?
An occupational health report should help answer work-related questions.
For example:
What impact does the employee's health condition have on their work?
Are they likely to be able to undertake their normal duties?
Could adjustments help?
Would a phased return be appropriate?
Are there workplace factors that should be considered?
Is there likely to be an ongoing impact?
When should the situation be reviewed?
It is important to ask the occupational health provider focused and relevant questions.
Acas highlights that occupational health professionals only have the information provided to them through the referral, so the quality and relevance of the referral matters.
For an SME, this is particularly important: don't simply write "Please assess this employee."
Explain what you need help understanding.
Occupational health does not make the decision for the employer
Another important point for business leaders is that an occupational health report is advice, not an instruction.
Acas states that it is ultimately the employer's decision whether to implement recommendations from an occupational health assessment, taking into account the needs of the organisation and the employer's legal obligations.
That doesn't mean recommendations can simply be ignored.
If an occupational health report recommends adjustments, the employer should carefully consider them, particularly where disability and the Equality Act are relevant.
If a recommendation cannot reasonably be implemented, the employer should consider why, document the decision and explore alternative ways of supporting the employee.
Don't forget confidentiality
Health information is sensitive personal information.
Managers should make sure that occupational health reports and other employee health information are handled appropriately, with access restricted to people who genuinely need the information.
Acas advises that health information obtained through occupational health should be kept confidential and that workers should be informed about how their information is being stored and used.
The Information Commissioner's Office also provides specific guidance on handling workers' health information under UK data protection law.
For a small business, this doesn't necessarily mean creating complicated systems. It does mean being clear about:
who can access health information
what information you actually need
why you need it
how it is stored
how long it is retained
how it is shared.
Occupational health should not replace good management
Perhaps the most important message for SME business owners is this:
Occupational health is a valuable tool, but it isn't a substitute for good management.
You shouldn't need an occupational health referral every time someone has a headache, takes a day off sick or tells you they're feeling stressed.
Managers should be able to have supportive conversations about health, workload and wellbeing.
HSE recommends keeping in contact with employees who are off sick, focusing conversations on health, safety and wellbeing and supporting their return to work where appropriate.
For work-related stress in particular, businesses should look at the underlying causes rather than simply telling employees to "manage their stress".
That could mean reviewing workloads, priorities, staffing levels, management support, communication or organisational change.
Five things SME leaders can do this Occupational Health Awareness Week
You don't need to build a large corporate occupational health programme overnight.
Instead, use Occupational Health Awareness Week as an opportunity to review the basics.
1. Review your sickness absence process
Is it clear?
Do managers know what they should do when someone is absent?
Do you have appropriate return-to-work conversations?
2. Check your reasonable adjustment process
Would an employee know who to speak to if they needed an adjustment?
Do managers understand that reasonable adjustments can relate to both physical and mental health conditions?
Acas recommends having a clear policy and ensuring managers understand how to respond consistently.
3. Know when to seek professional advice
Consider whether you have access to occupational health support and understand how to make an appropriate referral.
Don't wait until a situation becomes a crisis before working out where you can get advice.
4. Review work-related stress risks
Use HSE's Management Standards as a practical framework to examine demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
The legal duty to assess and manage work-related stress applies to SMEs too.
5. Train your managers
Your policies are only as effective as the people implementing them.
Managers need to know how to have sensitive conversations, identify when additional support may be needed, maintain confidentiality and recognise when a situation may require HR or occupational health input.
What's the opportunity for Occupational Health in an SME business?
Occupational health shouldn't be viewed purely as another cost or another process for managing absence.
For SMEs, it can be part of a more proactive approach to people management.
The goal isn't to prevent every absence. People will get ill, have accidents, need treatment and experience difficult periods in their lives.
The goal is to make sure that when health does affect someone's ability to work, your business has the knowledge and processes to respond fairly, safely and constructively.
That means understanding the difference between sickness absence and capability, knowing when reasonable adjustments may be required, managing work-related stress, using fit notes appropriately and knowing when specialist occupational health advice could help.
Most importantly, it means creating a workplace where health can be discussed early rather than only after a problem has escalated.
For an SME, that can mean better conversations, better decisions and a more resilient approach to managing people.
How Hello People Solutions can help
At Hello People Solutions, we understand that SME leaders don't always have the time, resources or specialist knowledge available to larger organisations.
Occupational health, sickness absence, employee wellbeing and reasonable adjustments can quickly become complex — particularly when employment law, health and business considerations overlap.
Our role is to help SME leaders navigate those situations with a practical, people-focused approach, so you can support your employees while making informed decisions for your business.
If you'd like to review how your business currently manages sickness absence, occupational health referrals or reasonable adjustments, get in touch with Hello People Solutions.