September 2017
Americans with Disabilities Act
This issue of @Work magazine features case studies and best practices that can help you ensure that your organization’s ADA programs are compliant and effective for both the organization as well as your employees.
Features
The ADA Is Your Organization’s Integration Driver and Partner
Once considered an “ignored step-child”, the Americans with Disabilities Act has risen to star status as integrated absence management has evolved. The experience of EY (formerly Ernst and Young) is a case in point. Read more.
The Problem of Pain: Reducing Opioid Risks
Using opioids for management of pain during recovery from injuries is a high-risk practice. Replacing opioids with alternatives is a best practice that is slowly taking hold, even in the midst of many challenges. Read more.
Spotlight Articles
Program Showcase: Mobile Accommodation Solution
A Mobile Accommodation Solution application, developed by the Center for Disability Inclusion in partnership with IBM and the Job Accommodation Network, will be released for iOS by the end of 2017 and for Android in the first quarter of 2018. Read more.
Compliance Makeover: Pregnancy Accommodations
Pregnancy is one of the top reasons for leave time, whether through the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, sick leave, paid time off, or short-term disability. While the actual level varies widely by industry, that average makes pregnancy as big a driver of leave and disability as musculoskeletal or behavioral health claims in many industries. Read more.
Columns
Wrestling with ADA, FMLA, and Overtime: ADA, Mandatory Overtime, and Essential Functions
Many employment positions have mandatory overtime, whether by regular weekly scheduling or when the press of business requires extra hours. In these situations, is mandatory overtime an essential function of the position? Read more.
Integrated Absence Management: Early RTW & Employer Medical Spend
Employee absence creates a $225 billion annual burden for employers. These costs hit employers regardless of why an employee is away from work. It is the absence, not the cause, that drives these significant costs. Read more.
FMLA Leave Administration: Outsourcing Leave Programs
While many organizations can manage their leave requests and documentation using their own internal resources, others find that leave administration is simply too cumbersome. How can you determine if outsourcing your leave program is the right decision? Read more.
Ask the Accommodation Experts: Overly Generous Accommodations
Accommodation experts Jenny Haykin and Tom Sproger explain how to assess when an accommodation request is unreasonable, and therefore, can be rejected or modified. Read more.
Absence Matters: Managing the Interactive Process Under the ADA
For employers, the challenges of multi-layered regulatory complexities are compounded by common organizational structures and program management approaches. Despite this, an employer can take certain steps to implement a more consistent and effective approach to the ADA interactive accommodation process. Read more.
Untangling the ADA, FMLA, WC Web: Transitional RTW
Most front-line supervisors lack the level of experience with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that is expected of HR leaders and disability management professionals. Yet front-line leaders play a critical role in managing the ADA. Read more.
The Future of Leave Management: Training Your Managers
More employers are using family-friendly benefits such as paid family leave to improve their success with talent retention. But these benefits do not operate in a vacuum; their impact on retention may be nominal without supportive supervisors. Read more.
Piecing Together the Integration Puzzle: ADA Case Study
The Americans with Disability Act is a law that, as employers, we love to hate. We all know the reasons. Its complexity makes compliance difficult, and the ADA is so ambiguous that, in some cases, it’s hard to know if you made the right decision. Read more.
Departments
The CEO’s Desk: The ADA Revisited
Do you find the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) constantly climbing higher on your “to do yesterday” list? You are not alone. Employers continue to ask for ADA guidance because even after more than 25 years, ADA compliance continues to confuse. Read more.
DMEC News: September 2017
This month’s DMEC News recaps the 2017 DMEC Annual Conference held July 30-Aug. 3, 2017 in Anaheim, where attendees celebrated DMEC’s 25th anniversary and looked ahead at what trends will impact the industry in the next 25 years. Read more.
Compliance Memos: September 2017
The September 2017 compliance memos cover SDI benefit changes in California, new state and local leave laws, and potential changes to the Affordable Care Act. Read more.
