May 10-16 is National Return to Work Week, an opportunity to highlight the importance of helping injured, disabled or ill employees stay-at-work or return-to-work. This week focuses on the importance of employee retention and employee ability. What can the employee do - versus what can the employee not do. Disability does not mean no ability.
I've encountered enough employee illness to know that an employee with cancer, as an example, may never feel well enough to come back to work. I learned today from the National Return to Work Week press release that if an employee is out for more than sixteen weeks, there is a good chance that individual will never return to employment.
I will also admit that workers' compensation and social security disability are not my favorite areas of HR. The best bet employers can make is to ensure you have a safe and injury-free workplace. You can't do a lot about illness, but you do need a policy that addresses how long you will keep ill and not returning to work employees on your payroll. You also need to comply with ADA determinations.
In my worst worker's compensation case ever, we hired an individual with an employment gap who had a plausible story and her earlier references checked out. See my scary story and beware.
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You say “The best bet employers can make is to ensure you have a safe and injury-free workplace.”
Although I agree that prevention is always necessary, there will still be employees that fall through that gap and in the spirit of preventative measures, I believe the best bet employers can make is to also have effective and early post injury rtw strategies to prevent long term disability. To provide a supportive, partnership approach to rtw and provide your employees with the type of workplace culture that will ensure they want to come back to work. Forward thinking employers will realise that both strategies are needed and will result in better outcomes for both their employees and their bottom line. You will still have employees that will fall through the smaller gap, but less of them!
i agree with your views