Good practices in companies on reintegration at work

About the project

Absence due to long-term illness has a high price for the employer, for social security, and for the disabled employee. For the latter, it leads to loss of income, loss of social contacts, and often to even more health problems. The longer a person is incapacitated for work, the more difficult it is to return to work. It is therefore important to give employees the opportunity to get back to work at an early stage.

The main objective of this research is to collect and analyse good practices on reintegration at work. The good practices are collected in a sample of twenty-two companies in Belgium. A tool is developed, which lists the different points and phases in introducing a return to work policy. This is being illustrated with examples collected on the ground.

The objective of the tool is that an employer who is motivated to introduce a policy on reintegration at work, could have the basic elements to autonomously introduce a prevention policy in his or her company.

The research is ordered by the Federal Public Service of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue. It is performed by ULB in cooperation with VUB.