Light duty immediately invokes negative feelings for most employers. I have heard countless stories from employers recanting the horrible experiences they have had as they attempted to bring injured employees back to work. I have witnessed the frustration and the surrender that occurs when injured employees manipulate the system and I have been involved in countless cases as a consultant that made me wonder, “Why are we even doing this?” Some of the cases that come to mind include:

l        A client who assigned all of their injured employees to the same work area for light duty. The employees immediately developed a friendship that resulted in symptom exaggeration, defiance and litigation.

l        An insurance agent who asked me to review the claim file of an employee who was on light duty and managed to file three additional claims within seven days of returning to work.

l        A file that resulted in an employee filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint after being terminated for not showing up for a light-duty job.

l        Several injured employees who became extremely comfortable in their assigned light-duty positions and refused to return to their pre-injury jobs.

l        A claim for an employee who found a new excuse every time we asked him to return to work—every time he showed up for work, his symptoms of constant pain kept him from doing any work. Finally, he got his attorney to find him a doctor that took him off work permanently.

These cases highlight the challenges faced by employers when they attempt to get injured employees back to work. Despite all the negative commutations about injured employees they can return to work successfully, if your return to work program is not an after thought but an integral part of your retention strategy.

Historically, the workers compensation system and laws have not adequately supported the return-to-work process—it is much easier to offer an injured employee a settlement than it is to give them the opportunity to return to gainful employment. The only problem with this scenario the next employee you hire might be someone else’s settlement.

The Challenge—Your Role as the Employer?

The critical steps for any employer, understanding the system, learning the pitfalls and establish appropriate procedures for returning injured employees to work as soon as possible. Return-to-work programs are only effective if they are implemented with the support of upper, middle and lower management. Return-to-work programs are successful when you allow frontline employees to contribute to developing the overall plan—remember, they are the ones doing the job, their input and recommendations will be critical if you have to modify a position to accommodate an injured worker. You can not expect employees to know your return to work policy if it is a secret. You can not continue to blame the system, the insurance carrier, the treating physician for the employee’s lack of cooperation – that is an HR issue. Like any other policy within your organization, your return to work program must be in writing and is should have clear, specific procedures that can be applied immediately to insure that the employee returns to work immediately.

Don’t forget the definition of a return to work or stay at work program?

Over the years, the workers’ compensation system has given the return-to-work process many names: Modified Duty, Light Duty, Limited Duty, Alternative Duty, Restricted Duty, Transitional Duty or Transitional Work. These terms all mean the same thing—returning an injured employee to a meaningful job until they are able to return to their regular position.

Don’t loose sight of the definition – A return-to-work program is designed to facilitate the return of an injured employee to work as soon as he or she is able to perform meaningful, productive work within the restrictions imposed by the treating physician. “Modified Duty” refers to changing or removing some tasks from the employee’s normal duties so they can continue working in the regular work area. “Alternate Position,” or “Alternative Duty,” refers to a temporary position that can be used to accommodate most injuries within your work environment. 

Employees generally do not want to be at home. And, even if they want to be there, it is your job to remind them that they are still gainfully employed and that watching TV is not an acceptable benefit from the injury.

Remember, to be effective a comprehensive return-to-work or stay-at-work program has to be implemented as a key component of a broader injury prevention and injury management program. Imagine if you could return every injured employee to work as productive members of your team, how significant would that be to your company’s productivity and profitability?

So the challenge for National Return to Work Week – what can we do collectively to help ill, injured or disabled employees stay in the workforce?

National Return to Work Week Five Day Virtual Conference will bring together employers, employees, physicians, vocational experts, insurance, legal professionals and disability providers from around the country to share expertise, best practices and exchange information to increase return to work opportunities for ill, injured and disabled employees.

Conference topics include:

l        “Disability Management a Daunting Task” – Dennis Chandler – Company Nurse

l        The Flip Side – Does Attorney Representation Short Circuit the Return to Work Process – Attorney Michael Moebes, Esq.

l        Disability Management is a Team Sport – Who’s on Your Team? – Margaret Spence, CWC, RMPE

l        Physician Where Art Thou? – Dr. James Blumenthal, Physicians Health Centers

l        Creating a Positive Return to Work Experience – Job Accommodation Network (JAN)

l        Advocating for the Injured Worker – Carolyn Arumbula, Center for Injured Workers

l        Engaging Employees Who Have Disabilities – John Althoff – Assurant

The National Return to Work Week Virtual Conference is Free and can be accessed via www.nationalreturntoworkweek.org or directly on the BrightTALK network. Join us on May 11, 2009 for the 1st Annual National Return to Work Week Conference on the BrightTALK Network

About National Return to Work Week – This week highlights the impact of not implementing proactive stay-at-work or return to work programs for ill, injured or disabled employees. It is a full week of educational and best practices presentations aimed at bringing disability management to the forefront of the national employment retention discussion. National Return to Work will be celebrated annually during the second week of May. Visit our website: www.nationalreturntoworkweek.org for more information and to get involved.

Press Release: National Return to Work Week is an opportunity for everyone involved in the workers compensation and disability management process to demonstrate their commitment to helping injured, disabled or ill employees stay-at-work or return-to-work. This week highlights the importance of employee retention and employee ability. What can the employee do? Verses what they can not do – Disability does not mean no ability.

“The stakes have never been higher” said Margaret Spence, founder of National Return to Work Week. “Every day we hear disturbing information about layoffs and downsizing – when company’s layoff employees, what happens to employees who are injured on the job or have illness that prevent them from find new employment. What do we do with these individuals? Are they just forgotten?”

Annually, 4.1 million employees sustain occupational injury or illness – 1.2 million have lost work days directly related to their injury or illness. Employees who are off work for more than sixteen weeks seldom return to the workforce. Employees with permanent work related disabilities are more likely to become unemployable. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 14.0 percent according to the Office of Disability Employment Policy. These statistics prompted, Margaret Spence to submit National Return to Work Week to Chase’s Calendar of Events last April, to her surprise it was accepted and added to the 2009 Calendar.

From a Workers Compensation standpoint – when employees are injured in the workforce there is a monetary reward mindset, a feeling that money is better than a job.  This is the only system that rewards employees to stop working – even when they are capable of returning to some employment. “We allow people to join the ranks of the unemployed for the price of a pick up truck” says Spence.

While most employees who are injured immediately return to work and continue their regular job – there are far too many who we settle out of the system. These employees either move on to a new employer, sometimes repeating the cycle, or they move to the ranks of the unemployed. There is also another subset that move into the Social Security System and become permanently disabled – adding a new burden to an already over taxed system.

From a non-work related disability standpoint – once an employee becomes eligible for long term disability, there may be few options to help the employee return to gainful employment or to encourage the employer to explore job or task modifications that would allow the employee to return to work in some capacity.

“Are there other options? says Spence. “Why can’t we make an effort to implement return to work programs that retain injured or ill employees rather than discarding them from the workforce?” she added “even in a challenging economic environment return to work programs are vital. Employers are not conducting a thorough evaluation of the long-term cost of workers compensation and disability coverage in their termination or retention decisions. Many companies may emerge from the economic downturn is dire financial situations because of the decisions they are making about ill, injured or disabled employees today.”

National Return to Work Week 2009 will bring together employers, employees, treating physicians, vocational experts, insurance, legal professionals and disability providers from around the country to share best practices and exchange information to increase return to work opportunities for ill, injured and disabled employees. Together we can highlight the importance of Return to Work, Stay at Work or Transitional Duty Programs.

The NRTWW Motto – Disability does not mean no ability – injured, ill and disabled employees should not be discarded from the workforce. Nor should we create a system that rewards and allows them to discard themselves from the workforce.

For details and more information about National Return to Work Week, becoming a partner, or participating in a our virtual conference, please visit www.nationalreturntoworkweek.org

About National Return to Work Week – This week highlights the impact of not implementing proactive stay-at-work or return to work programs for ill, injured or disabled employees. It is a full week of national educational and best practices presentations aimed at bringing disability management to the forefront of the national employment retention discussion. National Return to Work will be celebrated annually during the second week of May. Visit our website: www.nationalreturntoworkweek.org for more information and to get involved.

About Margaret Spence, CWC, RMPE – Margaret is the author of From Workers Comp Claimant to Valued Employee – and the founder of National Return to Work Week. She is an injury management expert on a mission to help employers understand the importance of implementing proactive return to work or stay at work programs. Learn more about Margaret Spence, visit her website at www.margaretspence.com

Chase’s Calendar of Events – Brothers William D. Chase, a journalist and publisher from Michigan, and Harrison V. Chase, a university social scientist from Florida, founded Chase’s Calendar of Events in 1957. Chase’s Calendar of Events today is the most comprehensive and authoritative reference available on special events, holidays, federal and state observances, historic anniversaries and more. Each spring, thousands of new entries are submitted to join the more than 12,000 items that make up each year’s book. Each event listing (where applicable) contains contact and mailing information. There is no charge to be listed in Chase’s. Each new edition appears in late September preceding the year in question. Visit their website – www.chases.com