Belgium — Pilot project in the youth welfare agency: Reintegration of employees after sick leave

This project focused on improving the well-being of employees of the Youth Welfare Agency who were older than 50 years of age and who were regularly absent or experienced long-term absenteeism. Individual, targeted reintegration pathways were developed for each participant in a collaboration between the individual, their supervisor and the human resources manager. Following semi-structured conversations, new job descriptions were created for each of the six individuals in the pilot programme taking into consideration their health status. Changes ranged from the removal of shift work to reduced interaction with service users, both of which had been identified as stressful elements of the job. Success factors included an increase in the perception of respect and meaningful work (individual level) and a 48 % decrease in sickness absence (organisation level). Challenges were identified in the assessment of employees’ work ability and the level of systematic follow-up. The clear five-step approach and the templates developed make this an easily transferable initiative.