When it comes to finding accommodations to help employees stay at work and return as soon as possible, a direct approach is best. Yet it is easy to get mired in administrative clutter and fears of fraud. Finding effective workplace accommodations that support employees and keep organizations humming is simpler with formalized policies and processes. It’s also smarter.
Recognizing that every employee’s situation is unique reinforces the need for personalized attention and individual assessments with integrated disability and absence managers empowered to color outside the lines. This requires ongoing training and education so frontline managers and supervisors as well as IDAM experts have the information and tools to unlock possibilities and remain compliant. It’s a fallacy that formalized policies and individualized assessments can’t exist together. It is simply not true.
Work is part of the healing process, so why aren’t we more transparent about that when discussing potential accommodations?
Starting from a Position of Strength
Do you consider accommodations part of the holistic employment picture? The answer — which is hopefully yes — will be reflected in the organization’s infrastructure to support employees seeking accommodations and those who fill-in for them when a leave of absence is required. It also influences how IDAM professionals approach their work. For example, a default reaction to requests for help or someone articulating a need is leave.
People will say, “Take all the time you need to heal” without questioning whether a leave of absence is the right answer. And it may not be.
Work is part of the healing process, so why aren’t we more transparent about that when discussing potential accommodations? Fear plays a role here. A fear of seeming unsupportive, of running afoul of myriad laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), lack of knowledge about employee roles, which influence accommodation possibilities, and the all too prevalent pushback, “If we bring them back, they will have a work-related injury.”
Fear and lack of knowledge may be hobbling your efforts. The more educated we are, and the more comprehensive our formalized policies and protocols, the better off we will all be. For greater success, we must shift our focus from a dissection of medical conditions to understanding employee capabilities to ensure an even playing field and encourage people to stay at work or return as soon as they are able to do so.
Data shows we can shorten duration and improve employee experience by designing creative solutions. This is illustrated in a recent DMEC podcast with Jenny Haykin, integrated leaves and accommodations program manager for Puget Sound Energy, who assessed leave utilization and aligned policies to ensure mutually-beneficial outcomes with a people-first approach.
Her strategy, which tapped DMEC AbsenceExemplar™ data to identify industry norms, emphasized employee value, reduced short-term disability hours, and resulted in significant cost savings! It also uncovered opportunities to focus on ability to work instead of on employee limitations, and the power of explaining all accommodation options — and their financial implications.
We know compliance with the ADA and a growing number of local, state, and federal laws is essential. And we must remember to lead with stay-at-work opportunities whenever possible. This has become more central to conversations as employers implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which was passed with a fundamental underlying premise to ensure pregnant employees were not put on leave by default. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission emphasizes this and more during the DMEC podcast “The PWFA Requires Employers to Exercise New Muscles.”
The key is to listen and act accordingly. The muscle podcast guests were referring to is the need to be more creative when we’re helping employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. And it’s a message that should reach beyond the PWFA.
Helping employees stay at work is mutually beneficial. When IDAM professionals engage in conversation and propose different alternatives to leave it can show employees they are valued members of the team. We can do more to make sure that’s the message we’re sending in light of data, which shows that employee confidence (or lack thereof) to return to work is a prime factor in extended durations.
Miscommunication or lack of knowledge about accommodations that would help employees return to work sooner makes an important difference. And formalized policies and processes help take the guesswork out of this important equation.
Looking first for stay-at-work options should be a cornerstone component of every organization’s formalized accommodation policies and procedures but it isn’t yet. It is unwise and risky to proceed without these blueprints, which lay the groundwork for IDAM experts to design creative and customized approaches that ensure inclusion and accessibility for those in need.
