A return to work interview is a short conversation with someone on their first day back after sickness absence. It has three jobs: check the person is actually well enough to be here, find out whether anything at work needs to change, and create a record that the conversation happened.
Most guidance stops at a list of questions. This one covers the two things that make the conversation legally significant — because a badly handled return to work chat creates more risk than not having one at all.
First, what you're allowed to ask for
Before the conversation, know where the line sits on proof.
For absences of seven days or less, an employee does not need a fit note. GOV.UK is explicit: employees off work for 7 days or less "do not need to give their employer a fit note or other proof of sickness from a healthcare professional". What you can do is ask them to confirm they were off sick — self-certification (source: GOV.UK — Taking sick leave).
Beyond seven days in a row, a fit note is required. Two details people get wrong:
- A fit note doesn't have to come from a GP. It can be issued by a GP or hospital doctor, and also by a registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist.
- You can take a copy; the employee keeps the original.
Counting the seven days trips people up too. It is seven calendar days in a row, not seven working days, and it includes non-working days such as weekends and bank holidays.
The bit almost every guide misses: you're collecting health data
The moment someone tells you why they were off, you are processing special category personal data.
UK GDPR Article 9(1) prohibits the processing of "data concerning health" unless a specific condition applies. For employers the usual route is Article 9(2)(b): processing "necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment", where that is authorised by domestic law with appropriate safeguards.
In plain terms: you are allowed to record sickness absence, because you have employment-law obligations that require it. You are not entitled to collect whatever you like about someone's health because they were off with it.
What this changes in practice:
- Record the fact of absence and its work implications, not a diagnosis. "Off four days, fit to return, no adjustments needed" is a record. A named medical condition is a diagnosis you now have to justify holding.
- Keep return to work notes where health information belongs — restricted access, not a shared drive folder the whole office can open, and not a line in a spreadsheet that gets emailed round.
- Don't hold it forever. Health data attracts the same storage limitation rule as everything else, and a stronger expectation of care.
None of that makes the conversation harder. It changes what you write down afterwards.
The second thing that makes this conversation matter
A return to work interview is frequently the point at which an employer first learns something that switches on a legal duty.
Under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010, a person has a disability if they have "a physical or mental impairment" and that impairment "has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities".
If someone meets that definition, the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies. Section 20 sets out three requirements, and the first is the one that comes up here: where a provision, criterion or practice "puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison with persons who are not disabled", the employer must "take such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage".
The practical point is about knowledge. If an employee tells you in a return to work conversation that their condition is ongoing and affects how they work, you now know. The duty does not wait for a formal request, a diagnosis letter, or the word "disability" to be used.
That is why what gets recorded in this meeting matters so much — and why "we had a chat, seemed fine" is not a record.
The questions
Six questions, in order. Keep it to ten or fifteen minutes.
1. How are you feeling now — are you fit to be back?
Open, non-clinical. You're checking capacity to work, not collecting symptoms. If the answer is hesitant, that is the meeting's most useful output.
2. Is there anything about your work that's affected by this?
The adjustments question, asked in plain English. Note that you are asking about work, not about the condition.
3. Is this likely to be ongoing, or was it one-off?
This is what separates a routine absence from a pattern that needs a different conversation. Don't press for detail beyond the work implication.
4. Is there anything we could change that would help?
Ask it even when you expect "no". Asking is evidence that you considered adjustments; not asking is the gap that gets noticed later.
5. Here's what you missed while you were out.
The return-to-work part of the return to work interview, and the reason people don't dread these meetings when they're done properly.
6. Anything you want to raise while we're talking?
Some absences are telling you something about workload, a manager, or something happening at home. This question is how you find out.
What not to ask: for a diagnosis, for details of treatment, whether they've seen a doctor for a short absence, or anything that starts "I hope this isn't going to become a habit". The last one converts a welfare conversation into evidence of unfavourable treatment.
What to record
Keep it short, factual and about work:
- Dates of absence, and the reason as the employee described it, in their words, briefly
- Whether it was self-certified or covered by a fit note
- Whether the absence is likely to recur
- Whether any adjustments were discussed, and what was agreed or declined
- Date of the conversation and who held it
That's the whole record. Five lines that demonstrate you held the meeting, considered adjustments and acted reasonably — which is precisely what you'd need to show if the absence later became a dispute.
Resist the urge to write more. Every extra sentence about someone's health is data you have to justify holding, and the retention rules apply to all of it.
Doing it consistently is the hard part
The conversation is easy. Doing it after every absence, for every person, with a record that survives a manager leaving, is the part that fails.
The usual failure isn't malice — it's a busy week. Someone comes back on a Monday, the meeting slips, nobody chases it, and eighteen months later there's a pattern of absence with no documented conversations behind it. At that point the absence itself isn't the problem. The silence is.
Three things make it stick: a prompt when someone returns, a form short enough to actually complete, and one place the records live.
HR Henry logs sickness absence and holds the return to work record against the employee, so the conversation gets prompted and the note goes where it belongs rather than into someone's notebook. See how absence tracking works, or read how long you have to keep employee records for the retention side.
If you also need to work out what someone is owed while they're off, our statutory sick pay calculator applies the current rules and shows its working.
Frequently asked questions
Are return to work interviews a legal requirement?
No. There is no law requiring them. They are strongly advisable - they are where adjustments get identified, and where the record of a fair process starts.
How long should a return to work interview take?
Ten to fifteen minutes for a routine short absence. Longer if the absence was extended, or if the person raises something.
Can I ask why someone was off sick?
You can ask, and most people will tell you. But what you record is health data under UK GDPR, so keep it brief, work-focused, and stored somewhere access-controlled.
Do I need a fit note for a three-day absence?
No. For seven days or fewer an employee self-certifies. A fit note is only required for more than seven days in a row, counting weekends and bank holidays.
Who can issue a fit note?
A GP or hospital doctor, and also a registered nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist. The employee keeps the original and you may take a copy.
Should return to work interviews be done by a manager or by HR?
Usually the line manager - they know the job and can act on adjustments. What matters is that it happens consistently and is recorded, not who holds it.
Sources
All checked 1 September 2026.
- GOV.UK — Taking sick leave
- UK GDPR, Article 9 — processing of special categories of personal data
- Equality Act 2010, section 6 — disability
- Equality Act 2010, section 20 — duty to make reasonable adjustments
This guide sets out general requirements and is not legal advice. Where a situation involves possible disability, long-term absence or a dispute, take advice.