All too often our biggest focus in disAbility management is how fast can we get someone back to work. Rather than making this your goal, cultivate a culture of genuine and universal concern for your injured and/or ill employees. Their chances of a speedy recovery is exponentially increased when the organization says 'I want you back yesterday' and we can help! Too many employees [...]
This issue seems to be arising much more frequently these days and unfortunately, employers are not handling it well whatsoever. If you take one or two notes and accommodate, I can guarantee you, there is a line of employees wanting to change their shift as well. How do run an organization, let's say a hospital, if a majority of your employees only want to [...]
It's very frustrating to me when I hear or read about how employers are accommodating their sick or injured employee. There's a right way to do this, and then there's the lazy way. Let's start with the lazy way - since it seems to happen all too often. When a worker provides restrictions or limitations, it's so easy to pull them out of their [...]
Over the years we've become very good at establishing appropriate accommodations when someone has a physical injury such as a sore back, or repetitive strain injury (RSI) but we need to get great at accommodating those with mental health issues. This seems to be a relatively new concept, one that is still yet to be adopted by most employers but definitely crucial in our [...]
WSIB has a campaign to eliminate workplace accidents called Road to Zero. In one of my earlier blogs, I wrote that I thought this was impossible. I still believe this today, unfortunately. Accidents happen all the time. The whole point of safety in the workplace is to reduce and/or eliminate them from happening but they continue to happen. With the new Rate Framework to [...]
Prevention is the KEY to Cost Containment With WSIB’s New Rate Framework Modernization starting January 1, 2020, it is time for employers to decrease their financial impact of work related claims and allow for significant cost containment through prevention utilizing a variety of strategies such as: advanced WSIB trainingonsite occupational health care measuresrecruitment or hiring of health care professionals establishing preferred vendor contractsimplementation of Health [...]
With over 30 years as an Occupational Health Nurse in Ontario and I thought that toxic environments were slowly fading but not so much. While we continue to struggle with increasing awareness about Mental Health issues in the workplace, reducing our workplace injuries and managing our absenteeism, a toxic workplace negatively feeds the souls of many employees and management team alike. It has the [...]
Staff members leave their positions for a variety of reasons, but the number one reason that they STAY and EXCEL is the corporate culture. They are looking for somewhere inclusive, where they feel valued and appreciated for their hard work. According to WhatIs.com, corporate culture is the pervasive values, beliefs and attitudes that characterize a company and guide its practices. You can almost think [...]
Skyrocketing CostsIncreasing AbsenteeismLack of Internal Expertise The decade or 2 of outsourcing disability management claims may be coming to an end. In the 1990’s, outsourcing was a trendy thing to do. However, today many organizations have decided that it is more economical to hire an internal disability manager. This may be true in the short term but unless you have sufficiently invested in the [...]
Have you ever heard of Manuka Honey? It is an incredibly powerful substance created by bees that pollinate the Manuka bush, found only in New Zealand and Australia. Australian researchers have found that this honey is better than all known antibiotics. Why? Because pharmaceutical antibiotics have a short shelf life, in addition to the fact that bacteria tend to become resistant in a short [...]
