Tamara's story
For HR Manager Tamara, working at not-for-profit community organisation like YFS is all about backing vulnerable people to overcome adversity and to thrive.
Support for when life gets tough
When life gets hard – whether with financial stress, health concerns or personal struggles – there’s help and support available.
Tamara shared with us what motivates her to foster a supportive return to work culture and help YFS employees when they are injured.
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
Tamara told us YFS case managers spend time in the community, both on the road and visiting clients. If an injury occurs, finding other work they can do while they recover can be a challenge, but supporting and retaining valuable employees is a priority.
“It’s a lot harder to employ someone brand new than it is to nurture someone back to full duties."
If you’ve got a great worker, why wouldn’t you do it?”
It helps the employee, and their team too.
“Being back at work supports the mental health of employees – they don’t lose connection with their team. When someone’s completely off work, sometimes the team has to pick up the additional work. Having them here, even on less hours, means they’re minimising the workload impact, and being seen.”
For Tamara, a mixture of preventative and supportive measures helps address the risk of psychological injuries, because sometimes case workers are exposed to distressing circumstances, which can take its toll mentally.
“We have immediate support available, like crisis incident counselling and an Employee Assistance Program. There’s a lot of practical ways we can support employees to feel safe.”
So, how does Tamara match up an employee with other work they can do while they recover?
There’s plenty of stuff to do, you just have to find it. Ask more questions – can they do this? Does another team need help? Can they work from home for the first week or so? Once you understand the barriers, you can work on solutions.”
Are there steps that Tamara takes from the start to make things less stressful?
“I’ll talk to them or call them if they’ve gone home and explain the process."
They’ve hurt themselves at work so it’s our responsibility to make sure they’re okay.”
When it comes to communication, what works for Tamara is getting everyone together.
“I’ll meet with the employee and their manager as soon as we know they can come back to work, so we can talk about what’s going to happen and who’s responsible for what. Then I’ll keep following up to make sure it’s going to plan.”
Tamara’s top tip for other employers is to be flexible around finding other work for someone who’s been injured.
“Be human. Life’s not black and white, help them out.”
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