What is a return to work program
A return to work (RTW) program is the formal policy that outlines general procedures for handling work related injury or illness. It represents an employer's commitment to the health, safety and recovery of workers following an incident.
Employer obligations
All employers in NSW are required to establish a RTW program.
All employers in NSW must have a RTW program within 12 months of becoming a Category 1 or Category 2 employer.
The program must:
- be developed in consultation with your workers and any representing industrial union
- align with your insurer's injury management program
- comply with SIRA’s Guidelines for workplace return to work programs
- be accessible and clearly communicated to all workers
- be reviewed at least every 2 years.
Employer categories and specific requirements
Employers are classified as either Category 1 or Category 2 employers.
Includes employers:
- with a basic tariff premium exceeding $50,000 annually
- who are self-insured
- insured by a specialised insurer and have more than 20 employees.
Creating a RTW program involves 4 main activities:
- appoint a RTW coordinator
- develop a RTW program
- consult with workers and unions
- implement the RTW program.
SIRA’s return to work program checklist will help you develop, implement and review your RTW program.
All employers who do not meet the criteria of category 1 employer as defined above.
Creating a RTW program involves 3 main activities:
- appoint a person responsible for recovery through work
- develop a RTW program
- implement the RTW program.
A standard RTW program template is available for adaptation or adoption by category 2 employers.
Guidelines for workplace return to work programs
SIRA has developed the Guidelines for workplace return to work programs to support, inform and guide employers, workers and other stakeholders in developing effective RTW programs. These are aligned with legislation to ensure compliance and efficiency.
Return to work for public sector employees
The NSW Government Return to Work Strategy 2025-28 promotes a person-centred approach and aims to improve return to work outcomes for public sector employees and agencies. View the strategySupport available
SIRA has a range of tools and programs to help you meet your workers compensation obligations and assist your workers to recover at work.
Videos
Videos showing how St Vincent's Hospital and Specialty Fashion Group implemented return to work programs and recovery through work plans.
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I am the second in charge, or part of a safety
team who manages all things workplace health
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and safety and injury management for work
related injuries and non-work related injuries, illnesses
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and conditions.
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The most important part of our return to work
program is not just the program, it's about
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awareness and education into that program
so there is a whole team of people around
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that provide the appropriate support. It comes
down to that initial conversation I have with
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that worker, what do they need, they're completely
connected. That initial conversation or those
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initial few conversations are about what the
process is about, what support we're going
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to provide, suitable duties in the workplace
will involve, do you have any suggestions
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on what you think you can do. Let's incorporate
that into the Return to Work plan. I'll talk
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to the worker really consistently probably
a few times in those first few days. A lot
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of people are fearful, pain can cause that. Thoughts
of loss of job, or loss of income, not to
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mention loss of functional capacity and not
knowing what could happen to a person recovering
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in a workplace, they're all the fears that are going
through somebody's head. Those first few conversations,
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especially that first one, is about identifying
that and putting things in place psychologically,
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physically, functionally to support them through
those first few days - that's key.
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The workers involved with making their own
Return to Work plan and suitable duties plan
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in consultation with myself and the manager
because after all they know their job better
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than I do so there is a whole team of people
around that provide the appropriate support.
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We have the doctor, the insurer, rehabilitation
providers, physiotherapists. There are the
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team that they are returning to work to see
and to work with, their managers and supervisors.
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So consultation for any decisions or improvements
on programs we make around here starts with
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the workforce, so we're looking at team meetings,
managers forums. We have a very active WHS
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committee here with all work groups represented
on that committee. We have executive forums,
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we have quality and safety forums. We have
lots of consultation across, up, down. You
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have a tailored program that's great but it
doesn't matter what it is – whether it's
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a marriage or raising multiple children, you
can't do the same thing for every person and
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it's that onset that you take the temperature
of the situation and determine what you're
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going to do next - within the guidelines of
your program.
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Workplace culture is improved through workers
feeling that they are supported in the workplace.
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It's really important for workers to understand
that not only they feel supported if they're
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not going home with an injury at the end of
the day then they've got happy families and
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happy lives. They can still contribute to
their work, to their communities, to their
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families. The impact of workplace injury on
staff morale, it can be huge if it's not managed well.
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They key to a successful recovery at work
program is ensuring that the program is known
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by every single person who works at the organisation.
There's no point in having a policy or a document
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on the intranet and nobody understanding what
that is. It makes sense to recover in the
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workplace and it's the most effective way
for somebody to recover from a workplace injury
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in terms of stress, culture, cost, everything.
It is very easy to implement a Return to Work program.
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For us we have a very holistic approach to
health and wellness within the business. We
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support both injury and illness and more importantly,
it doesn't matter what type of injury, whether
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it be non work related or whether it was a work
related injury, by approaching it in the same
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way we're able to make sure that we get the
right health outcome for our team members
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every time. In our welcome back pack, we have
basically some of those sort of pieces outline
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that really the more engaged they are in their own
recovery and that they do all of their treatment
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and that might be stretches at home or whatever
it may be, that we actually see those recoveries
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a lot quicker, and a lot more durable as well.
For us, it was obviously a very big change
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and what we actually did was we went to our
insurers and used our standard funding that
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we have available from them so we're actually able to
build an entire program for no dollars. We
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had zero budget we actually introduced everything
mid-way through the year, so there was no actual allocated
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budget for what we wanted to do, but we saw
the opportunity to partner up with our insurers
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and say "hey this is what we want to do" and
if they buy in, then they're actually able
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to support us. Obviously staying connected
with our team members is massive, it's important
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that not only my team has regular contact
and they have one point of contact as far as the health
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management team, but we also really support
that our regional managers are staying engaged
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with their team members, and also store managers are
staying engaged if one of their team members
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was injured, and by providing that support
network for them - they see that we care.
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The key to a successful recovery for any team
member that is going through injury is to
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really participate and follow all of the plans that are
actually there, obviously getting involved
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and using the early intervention hotline but then
following all the directions and planning
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obviously means that they actually know what they need
to be doing each week, and that we can see those
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gradual returns. For us returning back into
the store is obviously one of the most important things
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that we actually do. Our goal is to provide
suitable duties 100% of the time and that's
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obviously very aspirational, but we work very
hard on that. So for us we have a culture
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that really supports our team members back
into the workplace, and we actually have a system
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called 'Workers Comp Support' where we can actually
add additional hours into the store to assist
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that team member while they're recovering.
We also do some pretty, I suppose, different
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things as well, we've had team members that
have been unfit to be in the workplace, but
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Narelle had great communication skills - our
team member - and she was able to write blogs for us, and so she wrote blogs on her recovery
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and what it actually took to make that recovery
successful. In our welcome back pack we have
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basically some of those sort of pieces outline that
really the more engaged they are in their
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own recovery and that they do all of their treatment and that might be stretches at home or whatever
it may be, that we actually see those recoveries a lot quicker and a lot more durable as well.
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By having a collaborative approach, team members
are more accountable to their recovery. And for
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us we have a lot easier phone conversations with our team members,
we're able to sort of really open up and have those
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discussions about what recovery should look
like. The other people that are involved in
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the worker's support team is everyone from our
early intervention provider, but also a major
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partner in that is our rehab provider as well,
operating across all of Australia and even in
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remote areas within NSW. What we do that's
different is we don't focus on liability, we
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focus on health outcome. For us it's definitely
about being involved from the very start,
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we've invested very heavily in early intervention,
to the point where we have a 24/7 hotline
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that if a team member has a sprain, they can
call through and speak with an allied health
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professional and be organised medical appointments
instantly and obviously it's all covered by
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SFG. So building our program, with our team members
at the centre of everything that we do was
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able to see us actually achieve some really amazing
results from a financial perspective, with
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a 33% decrease in our premiums since the program's
inception. So obviously such a huge return for
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the business, and while engaging our team
members and basically showing them that we care, it's
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obviously been a win-win for the business.
What we actually do kind of matters - and
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we actually have a really big role to play. No one wants to
be injured and recovery is tough when it's
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a type of injury that may take time so by actually
seeing some of those really positive results and
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through feedback hearing that team members
love what we do and that they feel cared for,
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obviously takes it away from just being a job that you
do to actually giving you a real purpose , you get
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out of bed in the morning and you go "this
is cool, what we do is really cool." The insights
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that we've received from consultation were
it was literally a lightbulb moment where
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we actually started to say "hey people aren't really
engaged in what we're doing" so it was the
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basis to our entire strategy. Previous to
that we'd be very liability focussed or
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very compliance focussed, but simply from
that day when we first started consulting
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we knew that we needed to focus on engagement,
but also the health outcome. And if we get
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the right health outcome every time, then
we're going to be a very happy business. My
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advice for any business that wants to make
a change, is really look at how you're actually operating,
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and ask some really honest questions of your
people and actually say "what do you think about what
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we do?" and I think you might get the obvious
answer at the beginning which is "it's good"
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or "it's ok" but then when you continue to
push a little bit, by having that honest and open conversation with your people you
actually see that you can make some change
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in a really positive way.
Updated 2 September 2025