The Highlanders have this week off, the first of their two byes in the competition. They disbanded yesterday after reviewing the disappointing 44-13 loss to the Crusaders.
The players will spend a week at home before coming together next Monday to prepare for the Brumbies in Invercargill on April 1.
Slade will look to make his full Highlanders debut in the South, after breaking his jaw in the first pre-season match on January 29.
Joseph admitted the side had done well to win three out of five games without the Canterbury playmaker.
"When you look back at three out of our five wins, we had Lima [Sopoaga] starting as a 20-year-old, then Robbie [Robinson] and then Tony Brown, who did not have a pre-season with us," Joseph said.
"So the team has done particularly well, given those circumstances. It will be good to have Colin back but he is going to take time. Everyone is going to expect him to come back in and be like he was in the ITM Cup last year but he will take a couple of weeks."
Joseph was reasonably happy to have picked up three wins for the first five games, though the loss on Saturday night tempered any elation.
"It is a good time for a bye. We've been putting everything into it with passion and emotion. They [players] do need a break, they do need a rest, because we have to start like this again.
"The guys are a bit sore, then there is the jet lag. The bye week would have been good this week."
The next three games are critical ones for the Highlanders, who have lost the last two matches after a great start.
After the Brumbies, they play the Cheetahs at Carisbrook and then the Rebels in Melbourne, all very winnable matches.
The loss puts the Highlanders in eighth place on the ladder, and third in the New Zealand conference, behind the Crusaders and Blues.
One thing Slade will hopefully bring to the side is accurate goalkicking. Tony Brown missed five shots in all, including four in the first half.
Against the talent-laden Crusaders, they were costly misses.
"The pleasing thing for us is the guys still maintained their own personal character and maintained that for 80 minutes.
"The displeasing thing was missing those kicks at goal which would have kept us close. At halftime if we had kicked our goals we would have been ahead, and against the Crusaders you can't afford to do those things.
"When the game gets away it just becomes hard. That is why you have to keep the score close against a good Crusaders side. You've got to take the kicks at goal, get them over and that way you can create the momentum to be a good team."
Joseph said it was great to get a large crowd - 20,700 - to the game.
"I think with the way the guys play, and the way they have won, has got them a gathering of people. It is a fairly small community down here. To get 20,000 here is important. It may not seem a lot in terms of South Africa but for a city like this it is huge."
Highlanders development side prop Bronson Murray dislocated his left shoulder in the curtain-raiser against the Crusaders Knights on Saturday and his immediate playing future is in doubt.
The Crusaders next head to London to take on the Sharks, and look to be moving into some ominous form. The Sharks suffered their first loss of the season on Friday night, going down 15-9 to the Chiefs in Hamilton.
The Stormers are the only unbeaten team, winning a re-match of last year's final, downing the Bulls 23-13 in Pretoria. The Blues beat the Hurricanes 41-17 in Auckland while the Reds thumped the Rebels 53-3 in Brisbane on Friday night.
The Force grabbed its first win, beating the Lions 27-15 while the Cheetahs won their first game outside South Africa, dispatching the Waratahs 23-3 in Sydney.
