Getting Physical in Return-to-Work Programs

On the surface, returning an employee to work is easy. You match what you know of the person's physical abilities to what you know of the job's physical demands, and you either get a positive or negative result. If the result is negative, you find the employee another job or he or she stays on disability leave.

The devil is in the details. Most companies only know what is required of an employee in terms of work output, but don't know how to create that output, especially with regards to physical demands. This fundamental lack of knowledge causes significant operational problems, unsafe work environments for employees and increased costs in many areas of the organization.

TODAY: STUMBLING AROUND IN THE DARK

Trying to accomplish return-to-work without the right processes and solutions is like asking people to function effectively together in a dark house they've never been in before: the lights are out and no one knows where the light switch is. Many companies work in this fashion because they don't know there's a better way. Most have learned to feel their way around and find enough of the important things to get by. But this is far from efficient.

For example, issues begin when human resources professionals can't hire the most capable person for a physically demanding job because they have little idea how physically demanding it is. The safety professional can't effectively prevent injuries because he or she doesn't know what activities or tasks pose the biggest risk to the work force. When injuries do occur — as they inevitably do — the doctors who are treating the injured employee don't know how to write a restriction because they don't know what they need to protect the employee from.

In this scenario, how can the return-to-work specialist possibly find a job for someone when he only has vague information from the doctor regarding the employee's capabilities and he doesn't know the physical demands that different jobs require? Additionally, it's difficult for the workers' compensation claims examiner to accurately reserve a claim when all involved parties lack critical information.

Let's look at some simple processes that can shed light on your return-to-work and placement efforts and help you improve them while keeping employees safe.

TOMORROW: ENLIGHTENED DATA GATHERING

It all starts with a process for understanding the physical demands that ensures consensus among all the stakeholders. This activity includes:

• Measuring the physical demands objectively - your safety department knows how to do this already; they may even be doing it now.

• Getting management involved - they'll know that you are measuring the full spectrum of job duties.

• Checking your measurements with employees themselves - no one knows what it takes to do a job better than the people who do it.

• Collaborating with each department - collective information will best identify the essential duties of the job.

This process seems simple enough, but gathering and agreeing on the physical demands and critical functions is just the beginning. It causes the lights to flicker on in one room but they risk going out quickly. To keep the lights on throughout the house, we must be able to retain this new knowledge in a central place that everyone easily can access. In addition, we'll need processes that:

• Keep the data accurate and well managed through periodic (or as needed) audits.

• Create simple “physical demand tests” that mimic the job requirements to be utilized in hiring, on-boarding and return-to-work.

Now that we have the lights brightly burning, let's look at how much better all our departments can function:

HR now has the knowledge and tools to create the right fit between the employees and the work they will be doing. They know exactly what is physically required to do the job for which the candidate is being hired. Using a physical demands test, the employee will see (and not have to imagine) what the work will feel like. Both parties can make an infinitely better and more informed decision about whether the work is a right fit. Though this will not completely eliminate the chance of a future injury, it greatly will reduce it.