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REWARD Report REWARD: Return Employees to Work and Reduce Disabilities

Rewarding Return to Work: Containing Costs, Engaging Employees, and Positively Impacting Communities

According to the National Safety Council, the cost of work-related injuries in our nation in 2020 was nearly $164 billion. This figure includes approximately $45 billion lost in productivity and wages and $61 billion in administrative expenses. But it’s not just money lost due to injury: the number of days of work lost in 2020 alone was approximately 99 million. This is a very serious problem of which employers need to take note.

To offset the expenses associated with a workplace injury, implementing a Return-to-Work (RTW) program is a key component in any organization’s business and workers’ compensation cost-containment strategy. An effective RTW program can also assist in maximizing overall business results and in eliminating factors that contribute to the high cost of workers’ compensation insurance. But it’s not just about the money: there are many positive benefits associated with Return-to-Work. These programs get workers back on their feet, make them feel valued, and offset delays that may occur in their recovery process. Although RTW programs are critical to every business, not every RTW option will work well with every business model or injured worker.

Some employers may be able to offer modified duty onsite.

This method is ideal, since it keeps injured workers among their peers and helps them remain connected and active within the companies they serve. However, many industries, such as geographically dispersed and mobile workforces (e.g. truck drivers) and emergency responders (and other groups with highly specialized skills, e.g. paramedics), may find it more challenging, if not impossible, to offer in-house modified duties.

A solution to these limitations is offsite modified duty facilitated through volunteer work. Transitional offsite duty programs consist of light-duty assignments at non-profit organizations when the pre-injury employer is unable to provide work in accordance with the medical requirements from the worker’s treating physician. This type of work not only provides all the benefits resulting from keeping injured workers active and engaged, but it also fosters additional benefits for the worker and, by extension, their pre-injury employer when the employee ultimately returns to their original position.

The benefits of volunteering for the individual are almost too numerous to list.

The benefits cover a wide range of categories, including improved mental and physical health, enhanced sense of purpose, boosted social networks, help to avoid feelings of isolation, and helping injured workers recover sooner by keeping them active to name a few. Evidence suggests that among adults who volunteered in the previous year, 93% experienced improved mood, 88% had better self-esteem, 75% felt physically healthier, and 79% reported feeling reduced stress. This is a boon to employers and injured workers alike, especially when considering that volunteering may lead to the injured worker acquiring new skills that may help when they return to their previous position. Additionally, three-fourths of employees who volunteer feel better about their employer. Eighty-seven percent said that they developed professional skills, 86% reported learning better time management skills, and an incredible 92% felt that volunteering improved their teamwork ability and people skills.

ReEmployability, a corporation that specializes in facilitating offsite modified duty through non-profit organizations, has found that injured workers in its program return to work after an average of 52 days. This is significant when considering that after six months of being out of work, only 50% of injured workers will return to their previous role. After 12 months at home, a mere 5% will ever return. Considering that it takes roughly six to nine months of an employee’s salary to replace that employee, it is in an organization’s best interest to make sure that as many injured employees return to work as possible, especially when considering that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting that the number of non-fatal, work-related injuries is just shy of 3 million cases per year.

If modified duty onsite is not an option for your business, it might make sense to place them in a transitional volunteer opportunity with a non-profit.

Volunteerism will empower your injured workers to feel good about helping their communities and contributing to something bigger than themselves; allow them to gain valuable skills of which they may not have had the opportunity to practice in their pre-injury daily duties; help them recover faster; improve their mental and physical health; and return them to their original position with a new outlook and a renewed sense of purpose.

Sources:

Debra Livingston, Founder and CEO, ReEmployAbility, Inc.

About Debra Livingston, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ReEmployAbility, Inc.

Debra Livingston has served in various executive capacities throughout her career, with a concentrated focus on return-to-work programs. With over 25 years of workers’ compensation experience, she started her career as a claims adjuster and moved into various facets of the industry as an account executive for Aetna Property Casualty, a broker consultant for Wells Fargo Insurance Services, and director of claims for a large Florida employer. She is passionate about getting injured workers back to meaningful work. Through ReEmployAbility, she works with clients to advocate for their employees and to encourage a more empathetic and supportive approach during the return to work process. By joining business and community, ReEmployAbility has provided volunteers to thousands of nonprofit organizations across the US who have contributed over 14.7 million hours of community service! Debra is a member of Chief Leadership Group, a private network for women in executive leadership. She is a member of WorkCompCentral Education Advisory Board, a contributing faculty member of Work Comp College, and chairs the executive board of The Spring of Tampa Bay, a nonprofit whose mission is to prevent domestic violence, protect victims, and promote change in lives, families, and communities. She is a Business Insurance Woman to Watch honoree (2017) and has been recognized with a Comp Laude People’s Choice Award (2021).

R.E.W.A.R.D. PROGRAM: RETURN EMPLOYEES TO WORK AND REDUCE DISABILITIES

Appropriate return-to-work assignments benefit all involved. They contribute to the employee’s recovery by keeping them productive, engaged, and active. To learn more about transitional return-to-work, download the REWARD Toolkit (tn.gov).

MEET WITH LIKE-MINDED EMPLOYEES

The REWARD Employer Support Network is an ever-growing group of Tennessee employers who are interested in (or are already) running great return-to-work programs. Listen and join the discussion on February 22, 2023 at 9:30 CST guided by Les Kertay, Ph.D., ABPP, guest speaker. Learn how to more reliably encourage return to work and understand the difference supervisors, accommodations, and supporting the employee make in that process. Discussion will include the importance of supporting an employee’s total wellbeing as it is a critical component of return to work, and mental health is health.

DISCLAIMER

Views expressed in the REWARD Report are solely those of the authors and may not reflect the official policy or position of the Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims, the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, or any other public, private, or nonprofit organization. Information contained in the REWARD Report is for educational purposes only.