Many companies provide modified work accommodations and have a return-to-work program in place. It’s common knowledge that providing an injured employee with lighter duty tasks while recovering from an injury brings them back to work more quickly and reduces indemnity claims costs. However, typical return-to-work programs are reactive. A program is put in place after the injury occurs.
What about the impact of a reactive plan on the employee? There is limited understanding of what happens after someone gets injured. The employee can feel like an inconvenience or have uncertainty about their place within the company.
In our Critical Considerations For Your Successful Transitional Work Program webinar, we talk about a different approach – putting a plan in place before injury occurs. ICW Group’s proactive program can benefit your organization and your employees. Financial benefits include reduced litigation and disability expenses. Your employees will feel supported by the company through their injury recovery process when they are provided with value-added modified work. This contributes to a more positive work environment and improved company culture, which in turn can lead to lower turnover and reduced hiring costs.
With a Transitional Work Program policy, you will have a clearly written program that establishes the process the injured employee can expect and the requirements and tasks that may apply to them during their recovery.
Identifying transitional job tasks
You can identify transitional job tasks with two main questions:
- What tasks need to be done but aren’t being done because they are low priority?
- If you had an extra employee in your department, what tasks would you have them do?
Steps for Implementing your Transitional Work Program Policy include:
- Secure executive support that emphasizes the value of identifying transitional work tasks prior to an injury and a strong commitment to a positive work environment.
- Get Human Resources involved in establishing communication with the industrial clinic and working with managers to ensure transitional job tasks are created and updated as needed.
- Use manager feedback and knowledge to identify transitional work tasks that may be lower priority but are still necessary to complete.
- Implement employee communication so they learn upfront during the orientation process that the company has established a process to ensure they are valued and supported during their injury recovery process.
- Establish an industrial clinic relationship for mutual understanding that creating meaningful transitional work tasks is a top priority.
When you partner with ICW Group, you have access to our Transitional Work Program template, which includes a documented policy that outlines the process for implementing and maintaining your program, letter templates communicating the process to the injured employee and industrial clinic physician, sample task list templates, and a transitional work assignment form that documents approved modified work tasks.
You can also reach out to your dedicated risk management consultant for more personalized assistance.
