When illness hits home: tips on building resilient healthcare organisations

Illness in the workplace is a leadership moment

Healthcare is built on caring for others. Yet when a team member becomes seriously unwell, many leaders hesitate.

What do you say? How much do you ask? Where is the line between empathy and intrusion?

Supporting employees managing serious or long-term health conditions is not a HR process. It is a leadership capability that directly affects morale, retention and organisational resilience.

Elizabeth Pickworth, health, resilience and wellbeing coach and Managing Director of Sidelines Consulting, says the hardest part is often the first step.

“The first issue is potentially the most important one and that is ‘how do I open the conversation with my staff member about their condition?’ This sets the tone for how the relationship and health issue is managed going forward,” Pickworth said.

Avoiding the conversation rarely protects anyone. It simply delays clarity.

Pickworth notes that even where privacy protections apply, visible impacts or performance shifts make leadership silence unrealistic.

“The key is to do it in the most empathetic and confidential manner available.”

When employees do not volunteer information, leaders still have room to act appropriately.

“If the employee chooses not to disclose, there is nothing stopping a healthcare leader from just inviting the staff member for a friendly coffee for a check in.”

A respectful check in signals care without breaching boundaries.

Why trust and psychological safety matter

Without trust, employees will not disclose what they need. And without disclosure, leaders cannot design workable support.

Pickworth is clear about the stigma that still exists.

“There is a lot of stigma and still discrimination attached to disability and illness, especially within the workplace.”

When employees feel safe and valued, support becomes collaborative rather than reactive.

She points to practical actions that build trust:

• Regular check ins
• Visible access to EAP support
• Flexible or compressed hours
• Temporary job sharing arrangements

“The key is to be flexible, understanding and being genuine in your intentions to support your employee and maintain confidentiality and only disclose information where you have been given the ok by them.”

Psychological safety is not created through policy documents. It is created through consistent leadership behaviour.

The common missteps leaders make

Even well-intentioned leaders can undermine the very support they aim to provide.

One of the most common errors?

“Making assumptions that someone is going to be ‘too sick’ to perform their role. Or that their performance will be compromised.”

While capacity concerns may be valid, removing agency can damage confidence and engagement.

“That can be a genuine concern but it takes agency away from the employee where they should be empowered to make their own decisions and let their employer know their capabilities and capacity to work.”

Overly rigid processes can compound the issue. Standardised policies rarely account for fluctuating energy levels, treatment cycles or recovery variability.

Assumptions isolate. Consultation empowers.

Adapting workload without diminishing value

Supporting someone through illness does not mean reducing them to a risk profile. It means collaborating on a plan that evolves with their capacity.

Pickworth’s advice is simple but powerful.

“Empowering the employee to come up with a plan and support them. Allow the employee to self-determine and then ask ‘how can we support you?’”

Validation matters.

“Make sure you validate them and demonstrate that they are a valuable member of the team first and foremost.”

Capacity may shift week to week. Professional value does not.

Inclusive policies around flexible hours, temporary workload adjustments and graduated return to work pathways create structure without stripping autonomy.

Leadership shaped by lived experience

Pickworth’s perspective is not theoretical. It is grounded in lived experience, shaped by years of managing serious illness while continuing to lead, perform and contribute. That experience underpins her call for compassionate, flexible and courageous leadership. 

“I’m the Managing Director of my own company and for 8 years I have lived with a rare stage IV cancer and for 6 years a rare neuromuscular disease related to my cancer. I have lifelong chemotherapy.”

She was 31 when first diagnosed and has worked throughout treatment.

“This is a testament that despite illness, we can still contribute and be valuable employees and business owners.”

Her lived experience reshaped her leadership philosophy.

“Living with a rare cancer and rare disease and living past a terminal diagnosis has helped me develop an immeasurable amount of resilience.”

She also issues a clear warning for leaders.

“It is crucial that leaders are compassionate, flexible and recognise the contribution their employees with illness are making to the overall organisation. How leaders respond will set the tone for the organisation’s overall culture and how they look after health and wellbeing in the workplace.”

The leadership takeaway

Serious illness in the workplace is not rare. It is inevitable.

The question for healthcare leaders is not whether it will arise, but how prepared you are to respond.

The first conversation sets the tone. Assumptions erode trust. Collaboration preserves dignity.

In an industry built on care, the way you care for your own people is the clearest measure of leadership.