Guide for employees: what can you do to make sure you thrive on your return to work?

Returning to work when you’ve been absent for a while can bring mixed feelings. There’s a lot to think about, and you can’t do it all by yourself – we all need help from others. This guide is designed to help you during your first few months back at work after a period of absence for mental health reasons, looking at what you and others can do to make it easier.

It’s based on the IGLOo framework, developed by the University of Sheffield and Affinity Health at Work, which recognises that we all need other people and ourselves to help us stay healthy and happy:

• Individual resources: things like confidence and self-care;
• Group resources: help from colleagues, friends and family;
• Leader resources: help from your line manager, GP or service providers; and
• Organisational resources: help provided by your organisation, volunteer groups or charities.

This brief, accessible PDF is for anyone returning to work (but is part of a suite including guides for colleagues​Guide for colleagues: what can you do to help a colleague returning to work? PDF This guide is designed to help you to support a colleague who is returning to work after a mental health-related absence. It's based on the IGLOo model, looking at the Individual, Group, Leader and Organisation's parts to play.Free By: University of Sheffield View resourceClose, for line managers​Guide for line managers: what can you do to help a team member returning to work? PDF This guide is designed for line managers to support team members returning to work after a mental health-related absence. It's based on the IGLOo model, looking at the Individual, Group, Leader and Organisation's parts to play.Free By: University of Sheffield View resourceClose, and for human resource professionals​Guide for human resource professionals: what can you do to help an employee returning to work? PDF This guide is designed for HR professionals to support employees returning to work after a mental health-related absence. It's based on the IGLOo model, looking at the Individual, Group, Leader and Organisation's parts to play.Free By: University of Sheffield View resourceClose). It has a quick introduction to common mental health issues and their signs, and an overview of how each part of the IGLOo can help someone returning to work. Then, there’s a checklist to help you make sure the right things are in place.

You can also see a quick introduction to the IGLOo framework, from one of the researchers behind it, in this video: