The CEO’s Desk: Where’s Your Moxie?

I’m having a déjà vu moment. Writing about integrated disability and absence management (IDAM) is something I’ve done for most of my career. And, not surprisingly, it has been a foundational element of DMEC since its inception. Sadly, IDAM is not yet embraced by all employers though it streamlines efficiencies, minimizes risk, and helps employees stay at work and return to work (RTW) more quickly when a leave of absence is required.  

There is also a bottom-line motivation for employers to adopt an IDAM approach, a liability for not doing it, and a cultural component that should get more attention than it does. Yet to embrace IDAM, employers must breakdown entrenched silos between risk management, human resources, payroll, and suppliers. And some folks are reluctant to relinquish their fiefdoms.  

Challenging the Status Quo 

That’s one of the reasons it took so much moxie for Marcia Carruthers and Sharon Kaleta to brave the naysayers who questioned IDAM more than 32 years ago when these innovative leaders started DMEC. The naysayers called IDAM a flash in the pan and said it wouldn’t last. But our DMEC co-founders forged on, armed with the knowledge that separating disability and absence management created unnecessary hurdles for employees to access benefits and for employers to manage effectively.  

“We knew these programs could also help reduce nonoccupational disability costs and spare employees the tough challenges of disability and job loss,” Carruthers wrote in a 2019 issue of DMEC @Work magazine.¹ “It took perseverance to sell this commonsense approach in a corporate world dominated by program silos. Whenever employers installed these programs with adequate resources, however, they proved their worth!” 

That type of leadership inspires others to challenge the status quo, which is one reason we introduced the Kaleta-Carruthers Innovation Award to recognize industry innovation. We’ll announce the first winner during the 2024 DMEC Annual Conference. And while I can’t reveal the winner yet, I can tell you we were inspired to see so much innovation around the country. I know it is difficult to buck tradition and forge new paths, but there are so many reasons (and opportunities) to do so in our realm! 

Today IDAM is preferred by an increasing number of industry members, who understand the value of taking data-driven approaches to enhancing employee wellness at work, assessing all absences to identify vulnerabilities, and designing new ways to address them. It’s work that literally pays off for all parties involved.  

Moving Beyond the Silo 

My colleague and friend Sara Elder, senior vice president of Workforce Absence for Sedgwick, talks eloquently about the various pieces and parts to IDAM during the DMEC podcast “Why Integrating Absence and Disability Management Improves Employee Experience.”² I loved her analogy to avoiding the Bermuda Triangle of short-term disability, workers’ compensation, federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and paid leaves. And her reference to IDAM as a bellwether for organizational culture is a message that resonates. Do the teams that manage disability and absence seek ways to minimize employee burden and ease access to entitlements solely to comply with laws and reduce costs? Or is it to comply with laws and support employees through life’s journeys? This is not just semantics, as Elder notes in the podcast. It’s about culture. It’s about intention.  

In addition to streamlining and improving the employee experience, IDAM helps employers leverage data across their organizations and turn it into actionable information. It enables professionals to find the why behind disability and absence management and to ensure that information can be analyzed to ease compliance efforts, protect employee rights, and support employees during vulnerable times, as Elder notes.  

And while we have made strides with more employers choosing an integrated path, we have a long way to go before we can declare success. It can be comfortable in silos for those who gravitate toward small, confined spaces. It is also dangerous and risky to continue down that path when you consider the increasing number of laws employers must track and manage, and how coordinated management (or lack thereof) influences retention, morale, and productivity. It’s an issue we explore in depth throughout this issue and will continue to discuss during the 2024 DMEC Annual Conference, Aug. 5-8. 

I’m looking forward to the conference and to awarding the first-ever Kaleta-Carruthers Innovation Award to honor the DMEC co-founders who knew IDAM was the way to go. In addition to reducing costs associated with nonoccupational disability and streamlining access to leave, our co-founders always put people at the forefront of their work. As Carruthers noted in 2019, “The focal point was the employee experience: Could we make it simple for employees to stay at work or RTW?”  

The answer is yes. It was then and it is today. So I ask you, where is your moxie?