Employees and employers should work together to agree reasonable adjustments. Having a meeting is a good way to do this.
Preparing for the meeting
Before a meeting about reasonable adjustments, employees might find it helpful to:
- think carefully about what they do and do not want to tell their employer
- write down notes to refer to during the conversation
- practise out aloud, or role-play with someone they trust, to help find the best words to put the points across
Employers should:
- agree a time and place for the meeting
- share any relevant policies with the employee before the meeting
- make sure they're confident talking about reasonable adjustments
- put themselves in the employee's position – think about what is going on and what support they might need
- write down what they might need to know and think about how to ask about it sensitively
- know what the next steps might be and be ready to explain them to the employee
If an employer needs help preparing for a meeting, they could speak to a colleague or someone in HR.
The employer and employee should read any policies the organisation has about reasonable adjustments. These should make clear what is expected of them.
Thinking about what's possible
To prepare for a conversation about reasonable adjustments, the employer and employee should think about:
- what might be possible given the employee's job
- what might help the employee manage their health and work
- what might the impact of these adjustments be on their ability to do the job to a satisfactory level
- what might the impact of these adjustments be to the rest of the team
- how to avoid any risks to performance or others in the team
Getting advice from occupational health
An occupational health professional can give advice on what adjustments might be suitable.
Find out more about occupational health
Having the conversation and agreeing a plan
The employer and employee should take notes in the meeting to refer to afterwards.
It might be appropriate for the employee to ask someone they work with to join the meeting to take notes.
In the meeting, the employee should explain:
- why they're requesting reasonable adjustments
- which reasonable adjustments they want to make
The employer should:
- check how the employee is
- explain that the meeting is talk about how to help the employee stay well at work
- explain that some things might be possible, but others might not
- explain what the organisation policy is on reasonable adjustments
- ask the employee what reasonable adjustments they would like and why they think these will be helpful
- suggest any reasonable adjustments they think might be appropriate
- share what ongoing support is available
Together, the employer and employee should:
- discuss how the reasonable adjustments could work in practice
- agree the reasonable adjustments to try
- agree a plan to review and monitor the reasonable adjustments