Welfare meeting: what to ask an employee off sick

Monday, 8:15. A team leader at one of the sites gets a call: an employee has reported sick. What can he ask? Should he call, or better not? This conversation happens every week, at every site. Hardly anyone has ever taught the team leader how to handle it. The first welfare meeting is not about the illness, but about the work and the contact.

Why does the first conversation after a sick report so often go wrong?

The team leader is unsure. He wants to be caring, but does not know what is and is not allowed. So he asks too much, or he does not call at all for fear of saying something wrong. He does his best. He has simply never been taught how.

The employee is on the other end of the line, at his most vulnerable. Especially with mental health complaints, every question can feel like a judgement. That first conversation sets the tone for the rest of the sick leave.

There is another tricky point. The team leader is not the occupational physician and does not need to be. His role is the work: what is on the table, what needs to be covered and when you will speak again. Once he is clear about that, much of the tension disappears.

It also weighs financially. TNO calculated that in 2023 employers in the Netherlands paid € 8.3 billion in continued wages for work-related sick leave. More than half of that, € 4.9 billion, came from psychosocial workload. This is mainly due to the long duration of this type of sick leave (Van den Heuvel et al., 2025). Also read what causes burnout and what an employer can do about it.

What can you ask when someone reports sick, and what not?

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, AP) is clear: when an employee reports sick, you may only ask for and record what is necessary. In the Netherlands, these are the points (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, n.d.):

• Reachability. The telephone number where the employee can be reached and the (care) address.
• Expected duration. How long the employee thinks the illness will last.
• Current work. What the employee’s current tasks and appointments are.
• Accidents. Whether the illness is related to a workplace accident, or to a road accident with a right of recourse.
• Safety-net arrangement. Whether the employee falls under one of the four safety-net arrangements of the Sickness Benefits Act (Ziektewet). He does not always have to say which one.

What is not allowed is asking what someone has and what causes it. Health data is special category personal data. Even the employee’s consent does not change that. He depends on his employer and may feel obliged. Consent can therefore never be entirely free.

Does an employee tell you on his own what is wrong? Then you can simply listen. Listening is allowed. You do not ask about it, and you do not record or share it. The list of what you may ask is therefore short. That is no drawback, because the rest of the conversation is about the work.

Holding a welfare meeting in four steps

Take a team leader at a site who receives a sick report on a Monday morning. Holding a welfare meeting does not have to take long. Four steps, in this order, keep the conversation safe and useful.

1. Tone. Start with: how are you? Do not probe. The answer can be short, and he does not have to explain anything.
2. Practical. What needs to be taken over? Think of current shifts, appointments and what cannot wait. That way the employee does not have to worry about it.
3. Contact. Ask how and when the employee wants to stay in touch, and with whom. The British guideline NICE NG146 advises asking how someone wants to be contacted, how often and by whom. If the manager is not the right person, offer an alternative (NICE, 2019).
4. Work. Is work a factor? Ask about the work, not the illness. That makes sense. With mental health complaints and burnout, work is often a factor. That applies to 75% of sick-leave periods, partly or mainly (Van den Heuvel et al., 2025).

The answer to the last question does not have to come in the first conversation. Simply say that the question remains open. The employee may decide when to bring it up. It can help to agree a fixed moment, for example a short call in a week. Then he does not have to take the first step himself.

How do you stay in touch with an employee on sick leave?

After that first conversation, the real work begins. Staying in touch with an employee on sick leave is not politeness, but a legal duty in the Netherlands. Under the Gatekeeper Improvement Act (Wet verbetering poortwachter), your responsibility starts at the sick report. The UWV, the Dutch employee insurance agency, puts it this way: in the first weeks you make regular contact. You ask how things are going and what the expectations are (UWV, n.d.-a). The timeline after that:

• First weeks. Regular contact, meant to stay involved.
• After 6 weeks. The occupational physician draws up a problem analysis.
• By week 8 at the latest. You and the employee draw up an action plan together, within 2 weeks of the problem analysis.
• After that. At least once every 6 weeks you discuss progress (UWV, n.d.-b).
• After 52 weeks. A mandatory first-year evaluation.

NICE also advises making contact within 4 weeks. Make clear that the aim is support, not control. The division of roles helps too. The occupational physician discusses the medical side. The manager discusses the work. Keep those separate, and the conversation stays within what is allowed.

Earlier TNO research indicated that active absence management by the manager goes together with less sick leave (Ybema & Jettinghoff, 2009). Job satisfaction rose as well. Read that as a cautious indication, because the study dates from 2009.

What does the employee hear in that conversation?

Look at the conversation from the other side. An employee reports sick. He hears: “When will you be back?” That feels like pressure, even if it is not meant that way. The conversation is about the schedule, not about him. Many employees are already unsure whether they are allowed to be sick at all. That question confirms the doubt.

Does he hear this instead: “What do you need, and what can I take over?” Then he notices that someone is thinking along with him. The subject is the same, the tone is different. One question feels like control, the other like care.

That difference matters for what happens next. Someone who feels heard stays in touch and opens up sooner about what is going on at work. Someone who feels checked up on prefers to stay silent. Then you miss exactly the information you need to help.

What can HR do so team leaders can do this themselves?

The answer to “we are not ready yet” is: start small. You do not need to launch a big programme. Three small steps are enough to begin:

• One conversation card. Put the card above on a single page and send it to all team leaders.
• One practice moment. Go through the conversation once in the team leaders’ meeting, using a recognisable situation.
• Clear agreements. Set out in the absence protocol who does what and what is recorded.

Discuss that protocol with the works council. That is not a formality. It lets everyone know what is and is not recorded, and who may see it. It also gives team leaders something to hold on to if an employee asks about it.

Want to know which work factors play a part per team? Then ask the employees themselves. Do it anonymously and do not split the results for small groups. Say beforehand what will happen with the answers. Also read how to spot work stress earlier.

What can you do tomorrow? Send the conversation card to the team leaders. And at the next sick report, ask one question about the work instead of the illness. That first conversation does not need to be more than that.

Getting started

With the Reduce absenteeism module in Deepler Research, you ask employees anonymously which work factors influence absenteeism in your teams. Want to know first what is coming for absenteeism in the next few years? Then read the white paper Absenteeism towards 2030.

Sources

• Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. (n.d.). Regels voor werkgevers bij zieke werknemers. https://www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/themas/werk-en-uitkering/ziekteverzuim-en-privacy
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2019). Workplace health: Long-term sickness absence and capability to work (NICE guideline NG146). https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng146/chapter/Recommendations
• UWV. (n.d.-a). Quick start bij de Werkwijzer Poortwachter [Brochure]. UWV. https://www.uwv.nl/assets-kai/files/8c607801-a55b-40d6-9bd3-523911a688a6/quick-start-werkwijzer-poortwachter.pdf
• UWV. (n.d.-b). Plan van aanpak als een werknemer ziek is. https://www.uwv.nl/nl/ziek/loondoorbetaling/plan-van-aanpak
• Van den Heuvel, S. G., Bouwens, L., & De Vroome, E. M. M. (2025). Arbobalans 2024 (TNO 2025 R11108). TNO. https://monitorarbeid.tno.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/05/TNO-Arbobalans-2024.pdf
• Ybema, J. F., & Jettinghoff, K. (2009). Effecten van verzuimbeleid en verzuimcultuur op ziekteverzuim en arbeidstevredenheid. Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken, 25(2), 156-169.