Occupational Health Advisors
Occupational Health Advisors Provide Advice On Managing Work-related Health Issues
Occupational Health Advisors provide a type of medical service. Unlike GP’s, who are focused on diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. Occupational Health Advisors specialize in the relationship between work and health and provide advice on managing work-related health issues. Advisors are qualified to deal with a vast range of workplace issues and will provide a more thorough assessment than the employee’s GP. Focusing on preventing illness and injuries caused by work and helping employees stay at or return to work after illness or injury they also ensure workplaces comply with health and safety regulations. They can help your employee get the support they need by making suggestions for different treatment or tests that the GP can consider or by referring them on to another service such as counselling or physiotherapy. With regard qualifications some will be qualified Doctors whilst others will have a nursing background. Some Occupational Health Advisors specialise in specific areas such as stress or ergonomics.
This page was first published on 20 July 2012. The last update was on 27 June 2025.
Reasons To Use Occupational Health Advisors
Occupational Health Advisors can help decision making when:
- An employee is struggling with their physical or mental health including stress, musculoskeletal disorders and work-related illnesses
- You want advice about what reasonable adjustments would be appropriate for a disabled employee or those with a health condition that is preventing them from performing their job effectively
- An employee has been off sick for a long time and you want an indication of when and if they might return to work
- An employee is returning to work after a period of sickness absence and you want to check whether they are fit to return and what return-to-work plans would be suitable such as a phased return
- An employee is demonstrating poor or reduced performance and you are concerned a health problem may be contributing to the change
- You suspect an employee is using, or has admitted using, illegal substances or has become dependent on prescription drugs and you want an assessment of how this may affect their work
- You have invited an employee to a disciplinary meeting and they have submitted a medical certificate and you need to assess whether they are fit enough to attend the meeting.
- An employee with health problems has asked to be considered for ill-health retirement and you want to know whether the schemes ill-health criteria have been met.
Occupational health advisors can also signpost employees to other relevant services, such as physiotherapy or counselling and offer guidance on health lifestyle choices and promote overall well-being in the workplace.
An occupational health assessment provides useful additional information to that provided in a medical certificate or a doctor’s medical report. This is because an occupational health assessment is more focused on how the person does their job and how the job might affect their health.
How Occupational Health Advisors Work
When you ask an occupational health advisor to assess an employee you will firstly complete a referral form with your details, your employees details and the information you want the assessment to provide.
The type of information you might request includes what the employee needs to do to:
- Feel better
- Return to work
- Be able to do their job
- Avoid anything that could cause further health or absence issues
The assessment can be carried out online, using zoom or teams, on the phone or in person.
The occupational health advisor might ask the employee about:
- Their health
- Any treatment they’re having
- Any concerns they have about returning to work
Should the occupational health advisor require information from the employees GP or other healthcare professional they ask for the employees consent and will check that the employee is happy for the report to be shared with you (the employer) and whether the employee wants to see the report before it is shared.
The occupational health advisor might recommend that the employee needs:
- More time off work
- A referral for an appropriate course of therapy, for example physiotherapy or counselling
- Adjustments to their workspace, for example an ergonomic chair
- A phased return to work, for example reduced working hours or lighter duties
They will also assess whether an employee’s ill-health warrants dismissal or ill-health retirement.
Depending on the reason for the absence a second or third assessment might be required before a firm agreement can be made about the employees return to work or return to full duties.
Compliance With GDPR
Information about an employee’s health is sensitive personal data that must be kept confidential. The information should only be available to those who genuinely need access to it. This could include the employee’s line manager and your HR Adviser. You should keep the employee informed about how you are storing and using the report and how the employee can withdraw their consent to a report, if they later wish to.
Do You Need Occupational Health Support?
Kea HR partner with a number of Occupational Health Advisors and can support you through the process. All you need to do is tell us about the situation you want assessing and we will book and adviser and forward the report to you when we receive it. From there we will work with you to bring the situation to a satisfactory conclusion.
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