Industry Think Tank Provides Resources and Insights for Employers
While estimates vary on how many people in the U.S. suffer from long COVID, the General Accounting Office puts the number at 23 million. Many have experienced significant, long-term health-related changes that affect their jobs, families, and futures. And that, in turn, impacts a wide range of U.S. employers and industries.
Employers need information, guidance, and insights that enable innovative and practical approaches for managing long COVID. To help them support workers with the condition, the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC), a national nonprofit association focused on education for absence and disability professionals, partnered with Sedgwick, a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits, and integrated business solutions, to identify long COVID issues, as well as feasible and promising solutions.
The two organizations convened a group of the nation’s employers, researchers, clinicians, and others to develop a pathway forward. The mission of the long COVID think tank was to share answers to difficult questions and recommend effective solutions and strategies to help employees with long COVID remain on the job, return to work in an effective and productive capacity, or access leave if they are unable to work.
Long COVID: Assessing and Managing Workforce Impact shares results of the think tank’s work to date. It is the beginning of a long-term commitment by the absence management industry to explore the challenges of long COVID and develop solutions. It includes policy guidance, suggested stay-at-work and return-to-work accommodations, a decision-making process map, and best practices for monitoring long COVID and mitigating its adverse effects on employees and organizations.