Employer Policies and Practices to Prevent Disability

It is well known that employers play a key role in facilitating return-to-work and accommodating workers with pain and disability, but workers continue to report variable levels of support and assistance in the workplace, even when proactive return-to-work practices are formally adopted as written policies. Engaging employers to implement and coordinate more effective practices can be challenging and this requires buy-in at many levels from senior management to small working groups and immediate supervisors. In this webinar, Dr. William Shaw will talk about the role of employers to prevent unnecessary job loss, including new challenges and some future directions for preventing long-term disability and job loss.

The basis for this webinar is a 2015 invited conference and a subsequent 2016 Special Issue of the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation that was dedicated to understanding the role of employers to facilitate return-to-work, make job accommodations, and provide assistance and support to symptomatic or disabled workers. He will review relevant workplace factors and intervention programs, describe goals for future research and practice, and discuss implementation barriers amidst a changing workplace and a changing worker population.

During this webinar, you will learn:

• Why disability continues to be a major challenge for workers and employers.
• How employer policies and practices can affect disability outcomes.
• When more worker-centered approaches are necessary to overcome RTW challenges.