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.
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?
