What this is
What is a stay at work record?
What is a stay at work record?
A stay at work record documents keeping a worker at work on adjusted duties instead of letting them go off sick. It captures how the difficulty came to light, what was changed about the job, whether occupational health or a restriction record was needed, and whether the worker stayed at work as a result. It is a prevention record, raised before an absence starts rather than after.
How is this different from a return to work record?
A return to work record manages someone coming back after an absence has already happened. A stay at work record exists to prevent the absence in the first place, by adjusting the job while the worker is still doing it. The two sit either side of the same event: this one is upstream of it.
Who raises a stay at work record?
Anyone can be the trigger, the worker themselves, a supervisor who notices, a discomfort report, or occupational health, but the supervisor completes the record with occupational health support where the difficulty needs assessment. Speed matters more than who starts it, because the adjustment window narrows the longer the difficulty is carried unaddressed.
Scope
When is a stay at work record required?
This record intervenes while someone is still at work. Once an absence has actually started, the work moves to the referral and return to work templates instead.
Use this template when
- A worker is showing the first signs of struggling with their normal job, however that comes to light
- A discomfort report, supervisor observation or a pattern of short absences suggests an adjustment could prevent time off
- A temporary or permanent change to task, hours, equipment, pace, rotation or support could keep the worker doing productive work
- An adjustment has been made and needs a review date set to check whether it is still needed or should become permanent
- A linked record needs this one to exist: links discomfort reports, restrictions, modified duties
Do not use it for
- Work Restriction Record, which records what a worker can and cannot do while recovering, and for how long, once a restriction is formally in place
- Modified Duty Plan, which sets out the temporary duties a recovering worker performs, typically after a claim or absence has already started
- Return to Work Interview, which records the conversation on return from an absence that has already happened, not one being prevented
- Claim Support Record, which administers a workers compensation claim, a different instrument entirely from keeping someone out of the claims process
- Anything outside KnowHealth, which belongs in the workspace that owns that process
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 45001 cl.8.1 requirements does this satisfy?
ISO 45001 treats this as risk reduction and worker participation rather than a named procedure, so defensibility rests on showing the adjustment was timely, agreed and reviewed, not on a prescribed format.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.2 | Elimination of hazards and reduction of risk following the hierarchy of controls, applied to the task causing the difficulty | The difficulty |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Operational planning and control to keep work operations consistent with OH&S requirements as circumstances change | Adjustment made |
| ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Consultation and participation of workers in decisions affecting their own OH&S, including agreement to a proposed adjustment | Adjustment made |
| ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Monitoring and measurement of the effectiveness of controls, applied to whether the adjustment held at review | Outcome |
| ISO 45001 cl.6.1.2.1 | Hazard identification proactive and ongoing, including human factors and work organisation | The difficulty |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Control of documented information, applied to keeping clinical detail out of records the supervisor and team can see | Support |
What it does not cover
- Work Restriction Record, which formally documents what a worker can and cannot do and for how long, once medical restrictions are in place rather than an informal difficulty being managed.
- Modified Duty Plan, which sets out a structured temporary duties plan, typically once a claim or absence has already begun.
- Return to Work Interview, which records the conversation held on actual return from an absence, not the prevention step before one starts.
- Claim Support Record, which administers a workers compensation claim once lodged, a different process from keeping the worker out of it.
- A clinical diagnosis or treatment record, which belongs with occupational health or the worker's own doctor, not in a supervisor-completed prevention record.
Global
Stay at Work Record requirements by country
Stay at work interventions sit under general duty-to-accommodate and risk-reduction obligations rather than a dedicated instrument, so the practical difference between jurisdictions is how strongly the duty to adjust is enforced rather than whether a specific form is required.
ADA reasonable accommodation duty; OSH Act General Duty Clause
No stay-at-work standard as such. The ADA's reasonable accommodation duty covers qualifying disabilities, and the General Duty Clause covers recognised hazards generally.
An adjustment made under this record can double as ADA accommodation evidence, which is a reason to document it even when the difficulty looks minor at the time.
Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments; Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
A statutory duty to make reasonable adjustments applies where a difficulty meets the Act's definition of disability, alongside the general duty to assess and control risk.
Failing to consider an adjustment when a difficulty was raised can itself be the legal failure, independent of whether an absence ever resulted.
ISO 45001
Worker participation and risk reduction are management system requirements, applied here to task-level adjustment rather than programme design.
Certification auditors look for evidence that workers raising a difficulty triggered a documented response, not just that a policy exists.
How to complete it
How to complete a stay at work record, step by step
The form captures an adjustment cleanly. What is harder to get right is the judgement about speed, honesty and follow-through that decides whether the adjustment actually prevents the absence it is meant to.
An adjustment made within a week scores highest for a practical reason: the longer a difficulty is carried unchanged, the more it compounds into fatigue or a worsening condition, and the more likely the outcome becomes an absence regardless of what is eventually offered.
Physical, psychological, sensory or a combination is enough detail to design an adjustment. A supervisor recording more, a specific condition or a clinical guess, has stepped outside their competence and outside what the worker consented to share.
An adjustment can technically go ahead while both sides are unhappy with it, the worker accepting it under pressure, the supervisor accommodating it with visible difficulty. Recording that honestly, rather than as a plain yes, predicts whether it survives to review or quietly lapses first.
The adjustment being made is not the outcome; whether it held, became permanent, and whether the worker remained at work despite it are. A record that stops once the adjustment is agreed has captured the easy half and left the half that shows whether it worked unrecorded.
What auditors find
Most common stay at work record findings
Findings here tend to concern speed and follow-through rather than missing fields, since the form itself prompts for most of the detail that matters.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Adjustment took longer than a month to arrange after the difficulty came to light. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.2 | Set an internal target of days, not weeks, and track it as the primary measure of the programme. |
| Clinical or diagnostic detail recorded in a field the supervisor or team can see. | ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Restrict the difficulty description to physical, psychological, sensory or combination; route anything more specific to occupational health. |
| Worker's agreement to the adjustment recorded as reluctant, with no follow-up before review. | ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Check in with the worker before the scheduled review if agreement was reluctant at the outset. |
| No review date set for whether the adjustment should continue or become permanent. | ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Set a review date at the point the adjustment is made, not left to be added later. |
| Occupational health not involved where the difficulty plainly warranted assessment. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Route any difficulty beyond a straightforward task tweak to occupational health before finalising the adjustment. |
| Record raised only after the difficulty had already caused an absence. | ISO 45001 cl.6.1.2.1 | Train supervisors to raise the record at the first sign, including for adjustments that feel too small to document. |
Case in point
Case in point: the adjustment nobody wrote down
A picker on a production line mentioned to their supervisor that a shoulder was giving them trouble on the overhead reach stations. The supervisor moved them to a lower station that same afternoon, a sensible fix, and never raised a stay at work record because the change felt too small to document.
Six weeks later the same worker went off sick with the same shoulder, having quietly rotated back onto overhead stations when the line was short-staffed and nobody remembered why they had been moved. Without a record there was no review date and no visibility the difficulty had ever been flagged. The absence that followed was one the original adjustment had already prevented once, informally, and then lost.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
5 sections
- Reference
- HLT-058
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- SAW-2026-000
- Scoring
- Absences prevented
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- ISO 45001 cl.8.1
- Links
- Links Discomfort reports, Restrictions, Modified duties
- Tags
- Return to work, Prevention
- Sections
- 5
- Fields
- 51
- Follow up fields
- 4
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 8
Header
16 fieldsRecord ID*
Auto sequence. Format SAW-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Worker*
Person ID*
Format PER-0000.
Links to FDN-003 Person ID
Case ID
The absence, injury or health case this belongs to.
Thread key. Every record in this chain carries this value
Parent Type
What kind of record this follows.
Parent ID
The reference of that record.
Immediate predecessor record
Raised Date*
Easier Than Bringing Somebody Back
A person struggling with their job is far easier to keep at work on adjusted duties than to recover after four weeks off. This record exists to catch that moment before the absence starts.
How This Came To Light*
Worker raised it, supervisor noticed, discomfort report, occupational health, or a pattern of short absences.
- Worker raised it4 pts
- Self referral4 pts
- Discomfort report3 pts
- Supervisor noticed3 pts
- Occupational health3 pts
- Pattern of short absences1 pt
Source Record ID
Immediate predecessor record
Days Since First Sign*
The difficulty
8 fieldsTask
Job ID
Format JOB-000.
Links to FDN-004 Job Task ID
Nature Of The Difficulty*
Physical, psychological, sensory, or a combination. No diagnosis is recorded here.
Parts Of The Job Affected*
Parts Of The Job Still Manageable*
Work Related Contribution Suspected*
- No3 pts
- Possibly1 pt
- Yes0 pts
Assessment Triggered*
- Yes3 pts
- Not needed3 pts
- No0 pts
Assessment ID
Links to ERG-006 Assessment ID
Adjustment made
7 fieldsAdjustment Description*
Adjustment Type*
Task change, hours change, equipment, pace, rotation, or additional support.
Made Within A Week*
- Yes3 pts
- Within a month1 pt
- Longer0 pts
Cost
Usually very small. Recording it makes the next request easier to approve.
Worker Agreed The Adjustment*
- Yes3 pts
- Reluctantly1 pt
- No0 pts
Supervisor Able To Accommodate*
- Yes3 pts
- With difficulty1 pt
- No0 pts
Team Informed Appropriately*
What they need to do differently. Nothing about why.
- Yes3 pts
- Too much shared0 pts
- Nothing shared1 pt
Support
6 fieldsOccupational Health Involved*
- Yes3 pts
- Not needed3 pts
- No0 pts
Referral ID
Links to HLT-013 Referral ID
Worker Advised To See Their Own Doctor
Restriction Record Needed*
- No3 pts
- Yes1 pt
Restriction Record ID
Links to HLT-017 Record ID
Review Date Set*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Outcome
14 fieldsWorker Remained At Work*
The measure that matters. An absence prevented is worth more than any return managed well.
- Yes4 pts
- Partly2 pts
- No0 pts
Absence Occurred Anyway*
- No3 pts
- Yes0 pts
Referral ID If Absence Started
Links to HLT-059 Referral ID
Adjustment Still In Place At Review
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Adjustment Made Permanent
- Yes3 pts
- Not needed3 pts
- No1 pt
Next Review Due*
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
Supervisor*
Signature*
Worker*
Second Signature*
HLT-058 · record IDs look like SAW-2026-000 · Links Discomfort reports, Restrictions, Modified duties
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The intervention itself happens in a conversation between a worker and a supervisor. What the record depends on afterwards is whether the review date is kept, and whether the small adjustment that worked once is remembered the next time the roster changes.
Holds the stay at work record against the worker and task, and flags when a review date has passed without an outcome recorded.
Takes physical difficulties through to a quantified assessment where the task itself, not just the individual, needs redesigning.
Watches discomfort reports and short-absence patterns for signals that a stay at work record should be raised before an absence starts.
This template lives in KnowHealth — employee wellbeing. Exposure monitoring, health surveillance, case management and return to work.
Meet KnowHealth→Glossary
Stay at Work Record definitions and key terms
- Stay at work
- Keeping a worker in productive employment through adjustment, rather than allowing a difficulty to progress to an absence.
- Discomfort report
- An early, informal report of physical strain or difficulty, raised before it becomes an injury or a restriction.
- Reasonable adjustment
- A change to task, hours, equipment, pace, rotation or support that removes or reduces a difficulty without requiring time off.
- Restriction record
- A formal record of what a worker can and cannot do, raised when an adjustment needs to be documented as a medical restriction rather than an informal change.
- Absence prevented
- The outcome this record scores toward: the worker remained at work despite the difficulty, which the template treats as worth more than any absence subsequently managed well.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about stay at work record
Does every reported difficulty need a stay at work record?+
Every difficulty worth adjusting for is worth recording, including small ones. The record's value comes from the pattern across many entries, which is how a workspace learns where a job itself needs redesigning.
Should the record name a diagnosis?+
No. Nature of the difficulty is captured as physical, psychological, sensory or a combination, which is sufficient to design an adjustment. Anything more specific belongs with occupational health.
What if the worker only reluctantly agrees to the adjustment?+
Record it as reluctant rather than as a plain yes, and treat it as a weaker outcome even if the absence is avoided. A reluctant agreement is less likely to hold to the review date.
What happens if the adjustment doesn't work and the worker goes off sick anyway?+
The record still has value: it shows an attempt was made, links to the referral raised once the absence started, and gives the return to work process a starting point instead of nothing.
Who decides whether the adjustment becomes permanent?+
The review, not the original decision. An adjustment made for speed in the first week is deliberately provisional, and whether it is worth making permanent is a separate judgement made once there is evidence to base it on.
How is this record scored, and why does it matter?+
Scoring is absences prevented, with high being good, which keeps attention on the actual outcome rather than on how neatly the form was completed.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Return to Work
Occupational Health Case Record
Records and tracks a health case from first report through to closure
Work Restriction Record
Records what a worker can and cannot do while recovering, and for how long
Modified Duty Plan
Sets out the temporary duties a recovering worker will perform
Case Progress Review
Reviews how a health case is progressing against its expected timeline
Case Closure Record
Closes a health case, recording the outcome and any lasting restrictions
Claim Support Record
Records the information provided to support a workers compensation claim
More in Return to Work
Work Restriction Record
Records what a worker can and cannot do while recovering, and for how long
Modified Duty Plan
Sets out the temporary duties a recovering worker will perform
Return to Work Interview
Records the conversation on return from any absence, covering fitness, adjustments and whether work contributed
Return to Work Programme Plan
Sets out how the site brings people back to work after injury or illness, covering triggers, roles, timescales and the duties that are actually available
Return to Work Referral
Opens a return to work case and gathers what is known so far about the absence, the person and their job
Return to Work Meeting Record
Records the meeting between the worker, their manager and occupational health where the return is agreed
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- ISO 45001:2018 clauses 8.1, 8.1.2, 5.4 and 9.1.1
- Equality Act 2010, duty to make reasonable adjustments (UK)
- Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation duty (US)
- OSH Act Section 5(a)(1), General Duty Clause (US)
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.