Medical Return to Work

One of the more complex or at least confusing issues that HR Professionals deal with is a Medical Return to Work. It is complex because there is often a confluence of regulatory issues: Human Rights, Privacy, Safety Regulations, and Labour Legislation. These are also often at odds with, employee wishes, employer policies, doctor’s orders and even common sense. Furthermore, along with the forementioned, there are other stakeholders: the employer’s disability carrier, workers compensations agencies, auto insurance companies, third party personal benefits providers, medical facilities and other medical service provides such as physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, cancer agencies, etc etc. And then there is the employee’s Supervisor and the employer.

As an HR Professional it is a balancing act - balancing the employee’s return requirements and what the employer is capable of doing - safely. Also, because the HR representative is often privy to a little more medical information than they might like, there are also ethical issues. I do not profess to be an expert in return to work, but I have learned a couple of important lessons.

• It is important to discover who or what trumps what. For example, 1) Privacy Laws trump a supervisor’s desire to know medical information, and 2) Doctors order’s trump employer production needs.
• Carefully evaluate who should know what? As a rule of thumb, the less actual medical information shared, the better. To the extent that medical information informs return parameters – medical restrictions provided by the doctor should match up directly with job duties. The Supervisor should only be provided with a Yes/No per job duty/task etc. They do not need the gory details of the medical conditions nor their “professional medical opinions” validated.
• Prepare the Supervisor. While it would be easiest if the employee was off one day and then back to work 100% on a next day - this is seldom the case – enter Gradual Return to Work. Explain to the manager that the RTW will not be an ideal situation and that we have an obligation to work with stakeholders to try and return the employee back to gainful employment.
• Don’t always take the first offer. While it may seem altruistic to help an employee when they are down – everyone in the picture is running a business. It is unacceptable for an employee to return to work, sit around and do nothing while the employer pays the bill and insurers get off scott-free. Negotiate with the stakeholders. The goal of the HR professional should be: comply with the law, provide a reasonable opportunity for the employee to return to work and look out for the employer’s best interests – in this order.

The bottom line is that all return to work plans are a work in progress, all the time. They will evolve, change, and move forward and back. While every HR Professional has a story about an employee who abused the system, most of the time that is not the case. Most of the time, the employee and the employer are dancing around in an incredibly complex medical situation, that neither wishes they had to.