What this is
What is a suitable duties register?
What is a suitable duties register?
A running list of the adjusted duties actually available at a site, each described by area, whether it is genuinely useful work, how often it is available, and its physical, environmental and cognitive demand. It exists so duty matching draws on real, current options.
Who maintains it?
A named owner keeps it current, but the content comes from area managers, who know what work in their area could be adjusted for someone on restrictions. A register built without area input tends to list what is easy to imagine rather than what exists.
How is a duty different from a job?
A duty on the register is a piece of genuinely useful work, not a job description. An area might contribute several duties drawn from different roles, and a case might combine two or three into a temporary assignment rather than one role wholesale.
Scope
When is a suitable duties register required?
This register is the site-wide inventory the return to work programme draws on. It is not a case record and does not itself decide anything; it exists so that the meeting and the plan that follow have real options to choose from.
Use this template when
- Setting up the Return to Work programme for a site for the first time
- An area gains, loses or changes a duty and the register needs updating to match
- The yearly review with area managers is due, or has been triggered by a change
- A return to work meeting or modified duty plan needs to check what is currently available before proposing duties
- A pattern of cases finding nothing suitable suggests the register itself needs work, not the cases
Do not use it for
- Return to Work Meeting Record, which is the meeting for one specific case that draws on this register, not the register itself.
- Modified Duty Plan, which is the temporary assignment agreed for one worker, built from duties this register lists as available.
- Work Restriction Record, which holds what one worker can and cannot do; matching that against this register is a separate step.
- Graduated Return Plan, which sets out a phased schedule and may draw on more than one duty from this register across its phases.
- Anything outside KnowHealth, such as a general HR job description library, which describes roles rather than the specific adjusted duties this register tracks.
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 45001 cl.8.1 requirements does this satisfy?
The register is an operational control rather than a case record: it exists to make sure adjusted work is planned and available before a case needs it, which is what ISO 45001 asks of operational planning generally.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Operational planning and control of processes needed to meet OH&S requirements, established and maintained ahead of need | Header |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Control of documented information, kept current through a stated review cycle rather than left to drift | Header |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Determining the demands and controls of a work activity before assigning a person to it | Duties available |
| ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Consultation and participation of workers and area managers in decisions about how work is organised | Duties available |
| ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Monitoring and measurement of whether an operational control is actually functioning, evidenced by use in recent cases and manager awareness | Register health |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.4 | Internal communication, ensuring area managers know the register exists and what it needs from them | Register health |
| ISO 45001 cl.10.2 | Corrective action where a nonconformity, such as an area contributing no duties, is identified | Register health |
What it does not cover
- Work Restriction Record, which states what one worker can and cannot do, and for how long; this register lists duties, not people.
- Modified Duty Plan, which is the actual temporary assignment matching a worker to one or more duties from this register.
- Return to Work Meeting Record, which is the case-specific meeting where duties from this register are discussed and chosen.
- A job description or role catalogue, which describes a full role rather than a specific piece of adjusted, genuinely useful work.
- A risk assessment for the duty itself, which would need to cover the task in the detail a formal assessment requires, beyond the demand summary this register captures.
Global
Suitable Duties Register requirements by country
No jurisdiction requires a register by this name, but several impose a duty to consider adjusted work as part of accommodating a return, and a register is the practical evidence that duties were actually considered rather than invented after the fact.
Americans with Disabilities Act; workers' compensation return to work provisions in most states
Reasonable accommodation can include reassignment to a vacant or modified position, and an employer's knowledge of what is genuinely available is relevant to whether an accommodation was reasonably explored.
A register showing what adjusted work actually exists across the site is evidence the employer looked, as opposed to relying on a supervisor's memory when a case arrives.
Equality Act 2010, duty to make reasonable adjustments
Adjustments include transferring a worker to fill an existing vacancy, and what counts as reasonable depends partly on what the employer could have known was available.
A maintained register makes it harder to claim no suitable duties existed, and easier to show a genuine attempt was made when none did.
ISO 45001
Operational planning and control requires the organisation to plan the process, not improvise it when a need arises.
A certification auditor treats a current, area-reviewed register as evidence the return to work process is actually planned, as opposed to documented only after a case forces the question.
How to complete it
How to complete a suitable duties register, step by step
The fields describe each duty in detail. What determines whether the register is worth anything six months later is whether it stays true to what the site actually looks like.
A duty added at the last review can disappear within weeks: volume dries up, the area reorganises, or someone else is doing it under their own adjustment. Checking currency at the point of use, not just trusting the review date, keeps the register from quietly becoming fiction.
A duty invented to have something to offer undermines the worker's recovery and the register's credibility at once. If nothing genuinely useful exists in an area, that is itself worth recording rather than papering over with make-work.
Lifting, standing, repetitive movement and cognitive load recorded as vague or uniformly favourable make every duty look the same on paper. Precise recording lets a restriction be matched with confidence, rather than by guesswork tested on the worker.
An area that has never offered a duty is not neutral; every case that could have gone there falls on other areas instead. Reviewing contribution numbers alongside the duties surfaces this before it becomes the reason a case has nowhere to go.
What auditors find
Most common suitable duties register findings
The register usually exists once a Return to Work programme has been running a while. The findings are about whether it still reflects the site.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| No evidence of the yearly review being held with area managers. | ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Schedule and record the review as its own event, with area managers named as participants. |
| One or more areas contributing zero duties, with no action taken. | ISO 45001 cl.10.2 | Raise a corrective action against the area; a zero contributor is a gap in the control, not a fact to move past. |
| Duties marked available but rarely used, with no realistic hours recorded. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Record actual hours available and confirm regularity before the duty is offered against a real case. |
| Physical demand fields recorded generically, most duties marked low across the board. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Have the duty owner describe the task as performed, including peak demand, not just its typical state. |
| No evidence the register was actually drawn on by a modified duty or graduated return plan. | ISO 45001 cl.9.1.1 | Check the register used in recent cases field against case records, and treat a mismatch as a warning sign. |
| Duties on the register are invented tasks rather than genuinely useful work. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1 | Score genuinely useful work honestly; treat a duty scored as invented as a candidate for removal. |
Case in point
Case in point: the register that was correct a year ago
A meat processing site built a suitable duties register at the start of its programme, with packing, offices and the culture room contributing light, seated duties for lifting and standing restrictions. Eighteen months passed without a formal review, since nobody had set a hard trigger for one. A worker on a lifting restriction was referred, and the meeting drew on the packing entry as the obvious fit.
The packing duty had been absorbed into a new automated line six months earlier and no longer existed as described. The area manager, not consulted since the original build, had no reason to flag it. The case stalled for two weeks while a duty was improvised on the spot, exactly the outcome the register was built to prevent. The fix was not a better packing entry; it was making the yearly review a scheduled event with area managers, rather than a date on the register that nothing enforced.
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.
3 sections
- Reference
- HLT-061
- Archetype
- Register
- Record ID
- SDR-2026-000
- Scoring
- Duties available
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- ISO 45001 cl.8.1
- Links
- Used by Modified duty plan and Graduated return
- Tags
- Return to work, Duties
- Sections
- 3
- Fields
- 43
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 1
- Links out
- 2
Header
8 fieldsRegister ID*
Auto sequence. Format SDR-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
Last Reviewed*
Maintained By*
Next Review Due*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Otherwise Every Case Starts From Nothing
Without a register, each return begins by asking supervisors what they can think of on the spot. That is how people end up counting stock in a corridor, which helps nobody and insults the worker.
Duties available
Repeats18 fieldsDuty Description*
Area*
Duty Owner*
Genuinely Useful Work*
Work somebody would otherwise be paid to do. Invented tasks undermine recovery and dignity.
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- Invented task0 pts
Available Regularly*
- Yes3 pts
- Occasionally1 pt
- Rarely0 pts
Hours Available Per Week
Lifting Required*
- None3 pts
- Light2 pts
- Moderate1 pt
- Heavy0 pts
Standing Required*
- None3 pts
- Some2 pts
- Prolonged0 pts
Repetitive Movement Required*
- None3 pts
- Some1 pt
- Constant0 pts
Sitting Possible*
- Yes3 pts
- Sometimes1 pt
- No0 pts
Pace Controlled By The Worker*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Cognitive Demand*
- Low3 pts
- Moderate2 pts
- High1 pt
Cold Or Wet Environment*
- No3 pts
- Chilled1 pt
- Freezer or wet0 pts
Machinery Or Vehicle Operation*
- None3 pts
- Some1 pt
- Central to the duty0 pts
Lone Working*
- No3 pts
- Some1 pt
- Routine0 pts
Training Needed Before Doing It*
- None3 pts
- Brief2 pts
- Substantial0 pts
Shifts Available On
Currently In Use By Somebody
Register health
17 fieldsDuties On Register*
Areas Contributing Duties*
Areas Contributing None*
An area that never offers a duty is an area that expects others to carry its injured workers.
Duties Suitable For Physical Restrictions*
Duties Suitable For Psychological Recovery*
Duties Available On Nights*
Register Used In Recent Cases*
- Yes3 pts
- Sometimes1 pt
- No0 pts
Managers Aware Of The Register*
- Yes3 pts
- Some1 pt
- No0 pts
Reviewed With Area Managers*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
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
Occupational Health*
Signature*
Site Manager*
Second Signature*
HLT-061 · record IDs look like SDR-2026-000 · Used by Modified duty plan and Graduated return
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The register is a list. What actually fails is the update that never happens when an area changes, and the case that goes ahead against a duty nobody has checked in months.
Checks the register against active cases before a meeting is held, flagging duties that haven't been confirmed current or areas contributing nothing.
Takes the physical demand profile recorded for each duty and matches it against a worker's restrictions with the same rigour as a full ergonomic assessment.
Turns a duty's training needed field into a tracked requirement whenever the duty is assigned, rather than a note nobody follows up.
Chases the yearly review with area managers, surfaces zero-contributing areas as a standing item, and holds any change for approval before it updates.
This template lives in KnowHealth — employee wellbeing. Exposure monitoring, health surveillance, case management and return to work.
Meet KnowHealth→Glossary
Suitable Duties Register definitions and key terms
- Suitable duty
- A specific piece of genuinely useful, adjusted work that exists in a named area, described by its physical, environmental and cognitive demand.
- Genuinely useful work
- Work someone would otherwise be paid to do, as distinct from an invented task created only to have something to offer a returning worker.
- Physical demand profile
- The set of fields, lifting, standing, repetitive movement, cognitive demand, temperature and machinery exposure, describing what a duty actually requires of the person doing it.
- Area contribution
- The count of duties an area has offered to the register; an area at zero is offloading its share of adjusted work onto the areas that do contribute.
- Register review
- The yearly check with area managers confirming that listed duties still exist, are still available, and still carry the demand profile recorded for them.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about suitable duties register
How many duties should be on the register?+
Enough to cover a realistic range of restrictions across shifts and areas, not a fixed number. A register with ten well-described, genuinely available duties across several areas is more useful than one with thirty vague entries concentrated in a single area.
What if an area genuinely has nothing to offer?+
Record it as contributing none rather than inventing something to fill the gap. That is a real finding about the area, not a failure of the register, and it should prompt a conversation with that area manager rather than a workaround.
Who decides whether a duty is genuinely useful work?+
The area manager who owns it, in the review, is best placed to say whether the work would otherwise need doing by someone else. A duty that exists solely because a case needed something to offer that week is the pattern this field is designed to catch.
How current does the register need to be between reviews?+
Current enough that a duty listed as available is still available when a case reaches for it. Anything that changes a duty, a reorganisation, a volume drop, someone else already using it, should update the entry immediately rather than waiting for the yearly cycle.
Does the register replace the conversation with the worker?+
No. It narrows the field of realistic options before that conversation happens, so the return to work meeting can discuss actual possibilities rather than starting from nothing, but the worker's own suggestions and agreement still matter at that meeting.
What happens if no duty fits a worker's restrictions?+
That is itself a finding worth recording rather than a reason to invent a task. It may mean the case needs a longer graduated approach, a different area entirely, or a conversation about what genuinely useful work could be created rather than improvised.
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
Stay at Work Record
Keeps somebody at work on adjusted duties instead of signing them off
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
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 5.4, 7.4, 7.5.3, 8.1, 9.1.1 and 10.2
- Equality Act 2010, duty to make reasonable adjustments (UK)
- Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation through reassignment (US)
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.