Why is a good Return-to-Work program so important?
An effective Return-to-Work (RTW) program shows employees you care and reduces the impact of an injury.
When an employee is injured at work and has a lengthy recovery period, there are typically three main concerns:
- The well-being of your employee
- The impact on your business
- Your workers’ compensation premium, which increases with claims costs
Nationwide’s RTW Program
As medical costs continue to climb, your business is exposed to increasing workers’ compensation, as well as medical and legal expenses. One proven cost-saving measure is the development and implementation of Nationwide’s Return-to-Work Program.
Historically, return-to-work programs are only thought of after a severe workers’ compensation claim and have been focused more on the cost savings of returning employees from occupational injuries and less on the employee or finding long-term solutions. Nationwide’s Return-to-Work program is different. It is a comprehensive disability management and learning strategy that proactively involves management, human resources, safety personnel and employees working together. The goal is to minimize injury risk, support an injured worker’s return to wellness, and apply the lessons learned to prevent future losses and improve work efficiencies.
Return-to-Work benefits everyone
A key part of Return-to-Work simply means helping your employee get back to work as soon as possible after an injury or illness. For example, if a returning employee’s job requires the ability to lift 25 pounds, but the employee has a 10-pound lifting restriction, an SRTW program would allow the employee to temporarily perform a different job, or only part of the original job.
Medical providers work in cooperation with employers to help develop modified work restrictions appropriate for each individual. Return-to-work programs are most successful when employers take a proactive role in establishing relationships with local medical providers and begin to develop a program before one is required.
For the employer, in addition to reducing claims costs and insurance premiums, an effective return-to-work strategy:
- Encourages communication between management and employees
- Allows employees to continue working
- Keeps loss of productivity to a minimum
- Reduces the cost of recruiting, on-boarding and training new employees
- Creates an opportunity to complete work usually left undone
- Shows that you value employees and their contributions
For the employees, an effective return-to-work strategy:
- Preserves long-term earning power
- Keeps employees active and speeds medical recovery
- Shifts the focus from disability to ability
- Reduces the risk of re-injury (in some cases)
- Provides a sense of job security
- Allows employees to maintain contact with co-workers
- Reduces the long-term effects of disability, such as emotional isolation and depression
Elements of a Return-to-Work program
A Return-to-Work policy states your commitment to returning employees to work. Your company should develop a written return-to-work policy and procedures so that everyone understands what’s expected. Return-to-work procedures spell out each person’s responsibility in the process, including safety personnel, human resources, supervisors and employees.
Communication is key to a Return-to-Work Program. After an injury has occurred and the injured employee has received medical care, management should call or visit the injured worker within 24 hours. Communication helps reassure the employee that the company is sincerely concerned about his/her well-being.
Inform the employee of his/her rights and responsibilities as an injured worker. Answer any questions or concerns the employee may have. When appropriate, explain the Return-to-Work process. Maintain frequent contact with the employee throughout the term of the injury or illness.
It’s also important for you to discuss your Return-to-Work Program with the attending physician. Unless you discuss restricted-duty options, the physician may assume there’s no alternative available. When restricted duty isn’t an option, statistics prove it often results in an extended period of doctor-approved disability.
Provide the physician with the injured employee’s written job description, which should detail the physical demands of the employee’s regular job. Include a letter that notifies the physician of the availability of restricted duty assignments and indicate that your company can assist in the employee’s recovery.
Successful use of modified duty
Modified duty allows an injured employee to return or remain at work, performing physically appropriate duties. Job modifications are developed and implemented based on the injured employee’s limitations, restrictions, functional capacity and physical capabilities. For the employer, this means you should:
- Compare the employee’s functional capabilities to the job requirements.
- Decide to what extent the job can be modified.
- Identify other modified-duty opportunities on a limited or full-time basis, if modification of the employee’s original job is not possible.
- Take a positive approach and focus on what employees can do, rather than tasks they can’t perform.
- Assign tasks that may have been put off because nobody had time to do them. Often, these are tasks that are not currently being performed, or jobs that are being done only occasionally. Examples include inventorying supplies, reviewing old files, organizing the library or updating plans.
- Temporarily reassign tasks to free up other employees.
- Ensure that employees and their co-workers fully understand that this is temporary work, and that injured employees will be expected to return to their full jobs as soon as medically able.
- Review the assignment regularly, in cooperation with the claim representative and treating physician.
Employees performing modified duty must be closely supervised and monitored. They must also be directed to stay within their limits. As an employer, make injured workers aware of what modified duties include and that workers are expected to return to their full jobs as soon as they’re medically able. Modified duty should last no more than a few months.