Building a Highly Effective Return-to-Work Process

Twice a year, about 20 Texas Mutual Insurance Company employees attend a workshop called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. They spend three days improving their self-awareness, writing personal mission statements and working toward interdependent relationships.

Interdependent relationships are important in the workers’ comp world, too, especially when it comes to helping injured workers return to work. If you use the seven habits to build a highly effective return-to-work process, you can take steps toward reducing your workers’ comp costs and improving your productivity.

Habits one and two: Lay the groundwork

You will work with your employees to develop your return-to-work process. But first, you will lay the groundwork on your own.

Habit one teaches you to be proactive. Proactive people believe that they are a product of their choices, not their circumstances. You should not accept injuries as a cost of doing business. Instead, choose to invest the time and resources to develop a return-to-work process.

The goal of your process will be to help injured workers get well and back on the job. In habit two, you learn to begin with the end in mind.

Write a policy statement that confirms your commitment to the return-to-work process. Your policy should stress the importance of operating safely and getting immediate medical care for injured workers. It should also explain that the company will work with injured employees to help them recover and return to the job, either at full or modified duty, as soon as medically appropriate.

“A good return-to-work process eliminates surprises,” said Pat Crawford, return-to-work education coordinator at the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation. “Everyone should know what to expect if they get injured on the job. We encourage employers to post their return-to-work policy in high-traffic areas and give every employee a copy.”

Returning to Work and Returning to Normal

Unfortunately, many companies have workplace accidents at some point and these may require an employee to be away from work whether for a few days or for a few months.

 This time away from work can have a great impact on both the employer and employee, including a reduction in production, increased labor cost, depression for the employee and an increased strain on workers who are still on the job and covering the injured employee’s duties. Because of this ripple effect, it’s important to have a solid return-to-work plan that can minimize the effects on all parties involved.

An effective return-to-work plan lays out the steps that must be taken to return an employee to his or her pre-injury position. The injured employee, the employee’s supervisor and the worker’s health care provider should work together in order to create an appropriate plan. During this process, communication between all parties involved is vital.

A return-to-work process includes three key parts, assessing job tasks, identifying modified duties, and making a bona fide offer of employment.

• Assess job tasks. Write down the separate activities or tasks involved in each job at your company. Include the physical demands (such as lifting, typing, standing) and the environmental conditions (such as vibration, noise, heat) in your descriptions.
• Identify modified duties. Use your task list to match the available work to the injured employee’s work restrictions, as sanctioned by his or her treating doctor. Always tell the employee’s doctor about the modified duties to make sure they meet the doctor’s restrictions.
• Make a bona fide offer of employment. If you can offer an injured employee modified duties that meet his or her doctor’s restrictions, put the offer in writing.  If an injured employee refuses a bona fide offer of employment, the employee may lose his or her temporary income benefits.