Factoring diversity into return-to-work plans

Culture, age, disability, gender must all be taken into account

The plan should have worked, but it didn’t.

When an employee of the County of Oxford, near London, Ont., injured her shoulder, her workplace developed a comprehensive return-to-work strategy for her. It included some special ergonomic equipment, to save wear and tear on her shoulder. Puzzlingly, however, she chose not to use the equipment and her shoulder worsened.

Ann McKnight Duralia, the group’s employee health co-ordinator, recalls the moment she discovered the surprising reason why. The employee had been upset when a co-worker challenged her disability, and, rather than report the incident to her supervisor, she just avoided the issue and didn’t use the equipment.

“In Canada, most women are taught to be assertive,” McKnight Duralia says. “But this employee was from a different culture in which authority shouldn’t be questioned. She had difficulty even making eye contact with the person.”

Fortunately, the HR co-ordinator uncovered the problem as the direct result of a training course she was taking in diversity and disability management.

One of McKnight Duralia’s tasks was to interview someone from a different culture — and by happenstance, she chose the injured employee. Thanks to that relationship and the rapport they built, the employee finally felt comfortable explaining her hidden problem. “That was a real eye-opener for us,” McKnight Duralia says. “We had no idea.”

Like so many issues relating to diversity — age, disability, gender and culture — the real challenges are often partly hidden. It may be obvious that a worker is female and about 60 years old, but it may not be so apparent that she has arthritis.

That young, bright and enthusiastic supervisor might have lots of people skills with people his age group. But he may be uncomfortable accommodating the needs of older workers, particularly those who remind him of his father, with whom he has a stormy relationship.

“One of the things you need to realize is how your own perceptions about people can affect your dealings with them,” says Brian McNeill, HR assistant, compensation and benefits, with the B.C. Institute of Technology.

“You want to create an atmosphere where they feel comfortable and you can peel back the layers of age, gender and culture.”

McNeill admits that this is not always simple. “By virtue of who you are, you have an ingrained way of thinking and dealing with other people. Me as a male, dealing with a female client, well, there’s a diversity issue right there.”

Still, certain guiding principles can make the job easier. Says McNeill: “We rely on our supervisors a great deal. It really involves their educating the other employees in the department.”

Cathy Gourley, HR co-ordinator at Canfor’s Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George, B.C., echoes those sentiments. “I have some awesome foremen who know their guys really well, so there’s a big knowledge base there,” she says.

One issue Gourley is particularly sensitive to is the desire of some workers to come back too soon or to take on too much, too quickly.

“Because they’re guys and have that guy mentality, they may come back too soon.” It may also be an issue, she says, with Asian workers, who tend to have a particularly strong work ethic.

The solution? Gourley says it’s essential to have correct medical documentation. “That’s where it all starts from,” she says. After that, continued communication is the key.

In fact, all the HR professionals surveyed emphasized the importance of regular meetings involving the affected employee, the supervisor and the return-to-work professionals (both management and worker sides). At such meetings, the emphasis must be on finding solutions and creating accommodations.

In the book Workplace Diversity: A Manager’s Guide to Solving Problems and Turning Diversity into a Competitive Advantage (Esty, Katharine; Griffin, Richard; and Hirsch, Marcie Schorr; 1995: Adams Media Corporation), the authors describe one shockingly simple answer to a seemingly complex problem: a researcher who required a wheelchair was working too slowly. When no one knew what to do, a counsellor was brought in.

The case was closed when the counsellor suggested she simply place her files on a table at the same height as her desk. This painless fix allowed the employee to double her output.

For the County of Oxford, the solution was a little more complicated — and, in fact, they’re still working on it. For the employee with the injured shoulder, “we brought in the supervisor and addressed it as an educational issue,” McKnight Duralia says. “We talked to all the people in the work area and explained the ergonomic equipment would be available to anyone on a return-to-work program.”

But for the bigger issue of tackling diversity concerns head-on, the county is thinking big and long-term. “We’re doing return-to-work education with our union and organizing a disability management committee with both labour and management,” McKnight Duralia says. “We’ll look at these issues together. We intend to do everything we can.”

Daphne Gray-Grant is a British Columbia-based freelance writer and editor on contract with the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR). Information about NIDMAR’s online return-to-work training, which includes a module on diversity and disability management, can be found at: www.nidmar.ca/returntowork/main.htm.

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