Spend a few hours in front of the TV on a weekday and you’ll get an eyeful of what injured workers see every day: Ads for lawyers promising large settlements for their injuries. But experts recommend getting employees off the couch and back on the job as soon as possible. Today we’ll look at the benefits of early return to work (RTW), and some strategies for making it happen.
BLR’s twice-monthly OSHA Compliance Advisor newsletter reviewed some of the new and diverse RTW initiatives under way by employers, insurance companies, and disability-management providers, and found a number of recurring themes. These include:
- The need for efficient communication among employers, employees, medical professionals, and benefits managers
- The importance of focusing on RTW from the outset of injury
- Established policies and protocols to ensure consistency in the process
- A can-do attitude among all parties involved
- Consistent demonstration of employer concern for the employee
- A blurring of the distinction between at-work injuries and those sustained elsewhere
RTW Works
Whether the effort is led by an employer, a disability service provider, or a workers’ compensation carrier, the common wisdom is that early RTW makes good sense for employees and those who pay them.
Learn what you need to know to bring an injured worker back to the job quickly and legally at BLR’s special February 25 audio conference on the subject. Can’t attend? Preorder the CD. Read more.
The Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Division states: “It is to everyone’s advantage for an injured worker to return to work as soon as possible after injury, within medical restrictions, because returning to suitable work helps employees more readily recover from injuries, [and helps] employers gain lost productivity, lower compensation costs, and less dependency on other types of assistance.”
The state’s comp division and other sources point to studies showing that employers with proactive RTW programs realize a:
- Lower rate of lost-workday cases,
- Decrease in lost workdays, and
- Reduction in workers’ compensation claims.
Other research has found that:
- At workplaces with some type of RTW program, the majority of workers will return to their jobs early in their recovery periods.
- Most injured workers want to go back to work.
- Injured employees who miss 6 months of work have only a 50 percent chance of ever returning. Employees who miss a year due to injury return to work in only about a quarter of cases, and those off the job 2 years or more have little chance of ever making it back.
The value of early RTW is reflected in a code for disability management adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations in 2001.
According to Boston University professor and disability-management expert Norman Hursh, the code “provides a blueprint for action both for the small employer who wants to be proactive in developing workplace disability-management programs, and the larger company [that] operates in many states and different countries.” The tenets apply to those with temporary and more permanent disabilities.
Among key points contained in the ILO code:
- With the right skills, in the right job, and with support as needed, people with disabilities are capable and reliable employees and are an asset to their employers.
- Managing disability in the workplace is in the business interest of employers. It leads to savings in terms of lost time, insurance and healthcare payments, and costs of recruiting and retaining workers.
- Retaining people who acquire a disability while working means the employer keeps experienced workers with valued expertise in whom considerable investment has been made.
- Basing an approach on evidence, best practices, and experience enables workers with disabilities to contribute productively in the workplace.
Need to know more about safe and legal return-to-work? Attend BLR’s February 25 audio conference. Can’t attend? Preorder the CD. Satisfaction assured.
Go Team!
Among key take-away messages from the experts interviewed by OSHA Compliance Advisor is that RTW is a team sport. Collaboration and communication among employer, employee, health professional, insurance provider, and disability specialist is the key to success.
As you assess your program for improvement opportunities, think in terms of football, not golf, and you’ll score in this potentially high-stakes contest.
Tomorrow we’ll look at one company’s innovative approach to RTW, and we’ll invite you to a special audio conference that will show you how you can use your RTW program to boost retention rates, reduce costs, and avoid lawsuits.