Disability Management And Return To Work Issues - XYZ Company Essay.

• Examine different ways to administer disability management and return to work  programs.
• Explain the role that leadership teams and human resources plays in creating a safe  work environment.

Category

The XYZ Company based in Canada has some serious safety and return to work related issues. The company has several faults regarding the disability management of the company. The company’s management treats the employees are a safety risk and has several safety related procedures to avoid accidents. The company does not have any proper return to work policy. There are several risks related to return to work policy as the policy is not defined by the management of the company.

2. Recommendation

The HR and the OH&S department should lay the RTW process and explain it to the supervisors so that they can help the RTW applicants.

A successful return to work plan can be developed by increasing the awareness of the workers by informing them their roles and responsibilities. The current stage of the working environment is not as effective as the XYZ organisation does not provide any kind of healthcare aid to their disable staffs and does not provide any additional financial support.  As mentioned in the given case study, John Smith is desperate to return to his full-time work as his present income is not sufficient to run his family.  The overall strategic development is required for the best possible outcome. The strategic change that the XYZ organization require are as follows restructuring the management, contacting the return to work coordinator, filling up the return to work policy requirements and contacting with the healthcare providers can be effective steps to satisfy the basic criterion of return to work program.

The physical demand analysis is a helping tool to evaluate them and quantify the physical environment demand. As per the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (1997), the workplace safety must be provided by the organisations to their employees for best possible ethical perspective. As mentioned in the case study, John Smith needed to leave the job because of his overweight treatment. Then he wants to return to his workplace but has failed to several requirements. A gesture of breaching the duty of care has been found in the attitude of XYZ organisation (Monsivais, Monsivais & Robinson, 2010). The organisations need to utilise the functional abilities for the best possible outcome.

The management of the organisation and the injured employees are considered to be the stakeholders in the return to work management. Management support is essential criteria for return to work policy. The senior management must be contacted to promote the disability management and return to work issue ("Relationships Among Lifting Ability, Grip Force, and Return to Work", 2002). John Smith needs to contact the senior management of the organisation to seek management support. The ultimate need of the injured workers is the financial support and healthcare benefits that are needed to be provided by the management of the organisations for the best possible ethical outcome. An effective policy statement can be beneficial for John Smith to ensure his consistent accordance with the management of the organisation. The policy statement must include

• Workers participation and the employer’s assistance
• A flexibility program to accommodate different situations
• An essential program that is workable both in workable and non-workable injuries and
• A gesture of efficacy to review the return to work program

• The employee’s condition might worsen due to the stress.
• The physical condition of the employee might get worse.
• The employee might not be motivated enough ("Return to work.", 1978).
• The recovery process of the employee might slow down or even get disrupted

• The employee might not any desk job for himself in the office, as he was a field employee.
• Poor performance of the injured employee at his allotted tasks (Westmorland, Williams, Amick, III, Shannon & Rasheed, 2005).
• In case of an emergency, there might not be any medical help for the injured employee.
• The workplace in the XYZ Company is busy. Thus, the injured employee might not find a coordinating officer to report back.

The employee could not properly benefit from the RTW plan, as there was no one at the office to attend him. The employee could not find any assurance with the behavior of the HR and the OH&S departments. The managers should have been more sympathetic to the condition of John Smith and paid more attention to his queries.

References

Bacon, N., & Hoque, K. (2014). The influence of trade union Disability Champions on employer disability policy and practice. Human Resource Management Journal, 25(2), 233-249. doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12060

Banda, M. (2017). Return to work of post-chemotherapy caner survivors: what is the effect of exercise training on the return to work?. Internal Medicine Journal, 47, 6-6. doi: 10.1111/imj.7_13456

Fovet, F. (2015). Mental illness in the workplace – psychological disability management. Disability & Society, 30(4), 654-656. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2015.1014665

Mat Rosely, R. (2014). Factors predicting the likelihood of return to work for SOCSO's return to work program participants within different employers. International Journal Of Disability Management, 9. doi: 10.1017/idm.2014.15

Monsivais, J., Monsivais, D., & Robinson, K. (2010). Return to work prescription increases return to work rate in a primarily Hispanic population with chronic pain. The Journal Of Pain, 11(4), S55. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2010.01.230

Relationships Among Lifting Ability, Grip Force, and Return to Work. (2002). Physical Therapy. doi: 10.1093/ptj/82.3.249

Return to work. (1978). BMJ, 1(6104), 45-46. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6104.45-a

Westmorland, M., Williams, R., Amick, III, B., Shannon, H., & Rasheed, F. (2005). Disability management practices in Ontario workplaces: Employees' perceptions. Disability And Rehabilitation, 27(14), 825-835. doi: 10.1080/09638280400020631