Introduction
Health, productivity, and well-being of employers and workers in the contemporary society are becoming increasingly vital aspects. The economic, emotional, and social costs of illnesses and injuries are so severe that organisations and governments across the globe are trying to establish practices and policies to alleviate these costs (Akabas and Gates 9).
One of the practices that the government and organisations are adopting is Disability Management (DM). Disability management aims at assisting employees that suffer from illnesses or injuries while in their places of work. Initially, organisations could take staffs suffering from illnesses or injuries to offsite rehabilitation facilities. Nevertheless, the government and organisations are now involved in assisting the affected staff members within an organisation to ensure that their productivity is not affected (Akabas and Gates 11).
Numerous countries are currently introducing disability management practices in workplaces, for instance, Canada, Australia, Britain, and the United States. Some of the practices include work-life balance programs, paramedical and physiotherapy programs, insurance programs, and offering modified work to employees who suffer from disabilities. This paper will focus on some of the best disability management practices employed in Canada.
Work-life balance programs
According to a study conducted on employees that take long before resuming to work after injuries or illnesses, the more such employees stay out of their workplaces, the more their chances of returning to work decrease. Employees that are out of work for over two years have 10 per cent chances of returning to the workplaces (Akabas and Gates 12).
The work-life balance program is one of the best disability management practices. The program ensures that employees have enough time to relax after working and take adequate leave. This move helps in ensuring that employees do not suffer from work-related problems like stress, depression, and other mental illnesses.
A work-life balance program is one of the disability management practices aimed at helping employees cope with the challenges encountered during and after an illness or injury.
Whenever an employee suffers an injury or work-related illness and takes long at home, it becomes hard for such an employee to return to the workplace and associate with other employees (Akabas and Gates 13-17). Work-life balance program as one of the disability management practices entails coming up with modalities to accommodate an employee prior to his or her absence.
Before the affected employee is allowed to take leave to cope with the illness or injury, the institution comes up with a program to modify the work schedule or workplace for the affected employee. At times, an employee may not be willing to return to his or her initial place of work due to the humiliation s/he went through initially (Akabas and Gates 19-24). Consequently, institutions with numerous branches may offer the affected employee a chance to work in a different branch.
Besides changing the workplace, firms may work with the affected employee to come up with a work schedule that suits him or her, thus ensuring that s/he has adequate time to rest and attend to other personal duties. Through work-life programs, employers establish a work schedule with the help of the affected staff. In return, the staff members feel confident about the company as they acknowledge its concern.
Whenever an employee takes long to return to his or her workplace after an illness or injury, s/he further suffers from the disgrace of the absence. Besides, it becomes hard to relate with other staff members on returning since s/he fears their reaction. Work-life balance programs seek to alleviate these challenges.
They help in ensuring that employees return to work with limited challenges. The program helps in establishing an appropriate method of reintegrating the affected employees into a firm. Besides, the program establishes a working schedule that ensures that staff members have enough time out of their workplaces thus ensuring that they do not suffer from work-related problems.
Paramedical and physiotherapy program
Besides the work-life balance programs, the government and Canadian organisations are embracing paramedic and physiotherapy programs as another disability management practice. Institutions are turning to physicians to help them in ensuring that staff members that suffer injuries or illnesses at workplaces receive the best treatment and return to workplaces at the right time (Bruyère and Shrey 227).
In the past, employees were only allowed to return to work if their employers learnt that they were capable of handling all job functions. The best thing with paramedical and physiotherapy program is that physicians help firms in coming up with varied accommodations, limitations, and restrictions, thus helping employees return to work within the shortest period after suffering from illnesses or injuries.
Paramedical and physiotherapy program is a disability management program that Canadian organisations established to promote cooperation between employers and employees in the event of disabilities or illnesses (Bruyère and Shrey 22-234). Through the help of physicians, employers and employees come up with strategies to ensure that employees recover quickly from their illnesses or injuries thus returning to work.
Physicians assist firms to come up with medical inputs like limitations and restrictions to ensure that employees do not suffer from work-related injuries or illnesses. Moreover, the limitations and restrictions help in ensuring that staff members do not resume working while they still suffer from the illness.
Physiotherapists help institutions in monitoring the recovery of the affected employees and help organisations in establishing a treatment program for the affected ones. Besides treating the affected employees, the program helps firms in coming up with strategies to prevent chances of other staff members suffering from the same problems (Bruyère and Shrey 237-242).
Organisations use Paramedical and physiotherapy program as one of their disability management practices. Through the help of physicians and physiotherapists, institutions come up with programs to help their employees deal with all kinds of challenges that render them incapable of offering their services to an institution.
The program entails establishing limitations and restrictions to ensure that employees do not engage in activities that subject them to health problems. Moreover, it involves treating the affected staff and helping them to recover from the illnesses, thus returning to work on time.
Physicians and physiotherapists are indispensable instruments in helping organisations come up with efficient return-to-work programs. In a bid to enhance the success of paramedical and physiotherapy program, firms should establish a system that ensures timely correspondence among employees, employers, and physicians. Moreover, organisations should monitor their staffs regularly to make sure that they identify those suffering early enough and inform the physicians for timely and appropriate response.
Insurance programs
In Canada, employers work in collaboration with insurers in dealing with disability management. The role played by insurers in helping the employees cope with a disability is of immense help to firms.
Insurers help in ensuring that employees encounter a smooth process when returning or leaving the workplace (Creen 5). Moreover, they assist in ensuring that employees do not encounter challenges when switching from one category of disability to another. Insurers are increasingly coming up with measures to address the ever-changing claims situation.
The benefit of insurance is that it helps employees receive their claims without difficulties, thus being capable of accessing medical attention on time (Creen 7). In return, employees do not take a lot of time away from the workplace. Another benefit of this program is that it saves employees from discrimination by ensuring that confidential information about their health does not leak to the employers.
Insurance program involves a healthy interaction between the insurance agents and employers. With assistance from employers, insurers come up with tailored disability management programs for various employees. The insurer allocates a devoted disability team to an organisation.
This team works closely with employers to identify the challenges facing employees and come up with measures to address the same. In addition, through this program, insurers help firms come up with absence management practices and create a stable return-to-work formula (Creen 6).
Employers and insurers attend regular workshops, which equip them with requisite skills for dealing with intricate disabilities like mental disorders. The program gives employers and insurers an opportunity to monitor how the affected employees are responding to treatment and organise for further consultations, thus ensuring that employees recover from the disabilities within the shortest time possible.
Currently, insurers are working with employers to establish rehabilitation programs and early intervention mechanisms to facilitate in curbing disabilities (Creen 7-9). Besides, they are establishing training and mentorship programs to help employees deal with challenges that result in disabilities.
Insurance program as one of the disability management practices helps Canadian employees receive timely medical attention whenever they suffer from any disability at workplaces. Employers work with insurers to ensure that employees receive financial assistance within the shortest time possible.
Besides, they monitor employees to see that they recover from the disability and organise for further consultations in case they realise that an employee is not recovering as expected. The insurance program not only helps in addressing the disability problems that employees face in Canadian institutions, but also in avoiding chances of employee discrimination by protecting confidential information about their health.
Offering modified work
One of the key features of disability management practices is offering modified work to employees suffering from any disability. Rather than dismissing the affected employee, an organisation may make some alterations on job specifications of the affected employee (Westmorland and Buys 31).
Modification may entail cutting down on the workload, reducing the number of hours worked, or assigning the affected employee to a less demanding task. The main reason why this practice is among the best disability management practices is that, it helps institutions maintain their productivity by ensuring that they continue exploiting the affected employees’ skills.
Besides, the practice saves the company from the costs associated with hiring and training new employees (Westmorland and Buys 33). Another benefit of offering modified work to employees suffering from disabilities is that it helps in reducing chances of firms entering into conflicts with employees, which may ruin the organisational reputation.
In Canada, most organisations turn to work modification as one of the disability management practices. Some of the factors that lead to employees suffering from disabilities include workload and the number of hours worked per week.
Employees working in highly demanding jobs tend to suffer from numerous disabilities like backache (Westmorland and Buys 35-38). Therefore, to deal with this disability, firms reduce the number of hours the affected employee works in a week. At times, organisations may move the affected employee to a less demanding job to facilitate in his or her recovery.
Moreover, they make the working environment more flexible to help the employee take a rest at intervals during the working hours. Firms allow their employees to have job control as a mechanism to reduce chances of most of them suffering from work-related disabilities (Westmorland and Buys 39-40). Employers allow their staff to modify their workplaces to enhance their working conditions.
Offering modified work is one of the strategies of disability management practices in Canada. Organisations modify works for individuals suffering from disabilities as a way of helping them return to their full potential with limited difficulties.
The practice entails reducing the workload, number of hours the affected employee works for per week, and transferring the affected employee to a less demanding job. For effective disability management through offering modified work, it is imperative that employers involve the affected employees in coming up with the most appropriate modifications.
Conclusion
Organisations are currently switching to disability management practices as one of the methods of dealing with work-related injuries and disabilities. In Canada, organisations use numerous disability management practices. These practices include work-life balance programs, paramedic and physiotherapy programs, insurance programs, and offering modified work to employees who suffer from disabilities.
All these measures facilitate in ensuring that employees who suffer from work-related disabilities return to work with limited difficulties. The practices help institutions overcome costs associated with hiring and training new employees; besides, they help organisations preserve their reputation by ensuring that they do not conflict with their employees.
Works Cited
Akabas, Sheila, and Lauren Gates. “Organisational commitment: the key to successful disability management.” American Rehabilitation 16.3 (2006): 9-24. Print.
Bruyère, Susanne, and Donald Shrey. “Disability management in Industry: A Joint Labor-Management Process.” Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin 34.3 (2007): 227-242. Print.
Creen, Marg. “Best practices for disability management.” Journal of the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association 2.4 (2002): 5-9. Print.
Westmorland, Muriel, and Nicholas Buys. “A comparison of disability management practices in Australian and Canadian workplaces.” Works 23.1 (2004): 31-41. Print.