Disability Management And Return To Work Programs For XYZ Enterprises

Management of disability at the workplace

An environmental services company XYZ Enterprise has an employment base of 2,500 staffs with offices in all across Canada. The company recruits and appoints qualified personnel in field, laboratory and office duties based on their skills and qualifications. The company uses a standard safety and security policy at the workplace to ensure the safety and security of the workers and employees.

John Smith has been in the position of a field services technician with XYZ Enterprise for last five years and has worked efficiently in his position. However, recently declared by physicians as morbidly obese John has also suffered knee injury which has severely hampered his ability to move. With excessive weight John requires crutches to move. However, with his physical condition worsening John has reduced to complete immobility with his insurance company even declaring him as completely disable. Though he currently receives 66% of his regular employment income he is struggling to meet the financial requirements of his and his family with increased expenditure on medical treatment. Thus, despite his currency physical state John wants to come to the work to meet the financial requirements of his and his family as the sole breadwinner of the family (“Respiratory Protection Toolkit”, 2016).

The responsibilities of the employer to implement safety policies and procedures at the workplace to provide a safe and secure workplace environment to the employees and workers. The disability management program at XYZ Enterprise shall have the following characteristics:

Work status of the employee	At the work Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Absences due to incidents	Leave taken due to sickness	Short term leave for disability	Long term leave for disability
Intervention types	Preventive steps		Intervention at early stage	Recovery procedures
Status of Employee health	Employees are healthy	Employees are at risk of attracting possible health issue	Illness and injuries to the employees	Employees who have serious health issues and chronic conditions
Focus of the employer	Promoting the health of the employees	Managing the risks to ensure employees are safe and healthy	Managing injuries and illness by appropriate strategy	Managing disability
Examples of programs	1. Assessment of life habits of employees. 2. Holding information sessions. 3. Strategy to balance work and life. 4. Promotion of physical activities and other healthy programs.	1. Assessment of health risk issues. 2. Promotion by keeping in mind the changes in behaviour. 3. Program to manage stress at the work place. 4. Programs and activities to improve physical fitness.	1. Specific program to deal with different injuries and illness. 2. Education programs. 3. Complying with medication and treatment requirement. 4. Care management program. 5. Prevention program.	1. Programs to manage individual claims of employee. 2. Special care for the disable employees. 3. Chronic illness management program. 4. Rehabilitation program. 5. Option to translate obs. 6. Accommodations.
Strategy to return to work	Not applicable	Managing proactive absence in the workplace	Program to stay at work	Program to help employees to return n to work early (Stavropoulos, 2014).

XYZ does not have the standard procedures in place to manage serious illness, chronic diseases at the work place. The company does have scope to translate the field of John to provide him suitable office job where the movements and physical exertion are limited.

Suggestions:

1. The company should have an effective health program at the work place to manage obesity. Motivating employees to involve in physical activities will help the company to improve the physical health of employees.
2. Periodical medical check-up of employees shall be taken place to prevent illness and other health issues that may arise in the future (Santuzzi & Waltz, 2016).   

The company should immediately introduce a periodic compulsory medical check-up program at the workplace. This change will help the company to prevent illness and injuries at the workplace.   

The current state of John is quite bad with his insurance company declaring him completely disable. John should be provided with medical facilities and treatments necessary to improve his physical condition. Weight management program along with knee operation shall be carried out to ensure that John can walk and move at-least with the help of crutches (Froese, 2014).

The current functional ability of John is extremely bad as he is absolutely incapable of moving. As a result the minimum physical extortion needed to even work as an office clerk is not seems to be an option for John.

John and the XYZ Enterprise must have a proper communication. XYZ shall communicate that the company will do everything as per the rules and regulations to support John to come out of his current situation (Verrall, 2012).

Currently the main barrier to return to work are the physical inability of John to work. Thus, necessary medications and treatments shall be provided to improve his physical fitness along with a program to reduce his weights to help him return to work as soon as possible (Fovet, 2015).

The risk factors are as following:       

1. Complete disability.
2. Increasing weights.

• Knee operations.  

References:

Fovet, F. (2015). Mental illness in the workplace – psychological disability management. Disability & Society, 30(4), 654-656. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2015.1014665

Froese, E. (2014). Workplace-related rehabilitation after foot fractures. International Journal Of Disability Management, 9. doi: 10.1017/idm.2014.14

Respiratory Protection Toolkit. (2016). Workplace Health & Safety, 64(12), 603-603. doi: 10.1177/2165079916674476

Santuzzi, A., & Waltz, P. (2016). Disability in the Workplace. Journal Of Management, 42(5), 1111-1135. doi: 10.1177/0149206315626269

Stavropoulos, S. (2014). Management of workplace health & safety risks in new disability care arrangements. International Journal Of Disability Management, 9. doi: 10.1017/idm.2014.35

Verrall, B. (2012). Occupational Health Nursing in Canada. Workplace Health & Safety, 60(3), 111-113. doi: 10.3928/21650799-20120216-01