Getting employees back to work

Over the past decade, long-term disability (LTD) claim incidence, duration and costs have risen dramatically year over year. Industry statistics show these trends are driven by various factors including an increase in mental health-related claims and an aging population. 

Employers know LTD coverage provides valuable financial protection to employees and can be a critical means of recruiting and retaining talent. However, many employers feel the ability to offer coverage is being steadily eroded by factors beyond their control.

What is within employers’ control is to seek greater support from group insurance providers. This can include looking for specific best practices for managing LTD claims and prevention and early intervention strategies. These can help limit the exposure to rising claims costs and provide additional benefits to employees.

Disability trends and the aging workforce

Employee populations are getting older, on average, paralleling broader demographic changes: There are, for the first time, more Canadians who are 64 and older than under the age of 15, according to a 2016 Statistics Canada census report. The impact of age on the number of disability claims is dramatic.

For example, the odds of an employee who is 52 years old becoming disabled are 15.8 in 1,000 — more than double the incidence of disability for an employee who is 32 (6.9 in 1,000), according to Great-West Life data.

This is because the occurrence of certain diagnoses such as musculoskeletal, cancer, nervous system and sensory organ disorders rises significantly with age.

Looking at cancer alone, a disability caused by cancer is four times more likely for a 62-year-old than a 42-year-old.

Claims duration is also affected by age: The average claim for a plan member disabled between ages 40 and 49 is about twice as long as for someone who is disabled before age 30, according to Great-West Life.

For employers, these age-related numbers translate into higher costs. Moreover, World Health Organization studies on health and lifestyle suggest the combination of demographic trends and more sedentary habits can have a huge impact on health trends, disability and productivity.

Wellness begins with prevention

Great-West Life’s experience shows that employers that integrate wellness initiatives and resources across the organization can expect to have happier and more productive employees. It begins with recognizing the role an employer can play in keeping employees healthy (both physically and psychologically) and responding to health risks as they emerge.

Be proactive: Many age-related diseases and conditions are controllable, so the time to act is before a disability occurs. Cholesterol disorders, high blood pressure and some forms of diabetes can often be managed through informed choices about diet and exercise.

Employers can support employees by providing tools and resources to increase their knowledge and motivate positive decisions and actions.

Be responsive: Employers can learn to recognize the health risks that exist at their organizations and target wellness programs to address those risks. Providers can help identify risks through benefit plan trend reports and health-risk assessment campaigns.

Intervene early to minimize absence

Employers also need policies and processes to help ensure employees who are dealing with health issues are able to remain productive at work as long as possible. Most employers recognize the duty to accommodate but may struggle with making it happen consistently.  

Employers can look to providers to help navigate the duty to accommodate and be creative in identifying alternate work opportunities for employees with short- or long-term health issues. When done well, this approach can help an employee remain a productive member of the work team much longer, and can even help prevent a disability claim.

Providers can play an active role in helping employers develop creative accommodation plans that maximize the skill set of an employee who may be dealing with a chronic functional limitation but can still make a valuable contribution to the workplace. 

Customized support

Once an employee is off work due to illness or disability, the employer’s objective should shift to maintaining a relationship with the employee to achieve a successful return to work, at the appropriate time. Each support plan should be tailored to the employee.

Keeping lines of communication open can reduce return-to-work barriers. The return-to-work process can be more successful if the employer has maintained contact with the employee. The employee can feel more comfortable participating in the development of the return-to-work plan.

When an individual is disabled for an extended period, she may have long periods of inactivity that can lead to deconditioning or the development of other medical conditions, which can decrease the likelihood of a successful return to work.

For this reason, employers and providers should focus on providing support to help minimize the duration of the absence and keep the employee connected to the workplace. Recovery plans that are work-oriented rather than clinic-based can play a key role.   

Employers also need to recognize that sometimes there are non-medical barriers to workplace performance or return to work. An older disabled worker may have been struggling with changes and new pressures in the workplace — new technology, rising expectations of speed and quality, as well as the dynamics of multiple generations working together.

These concerns may be heightened when an employee is away from the workplace for an extended period. Return-to-work plans may need to address these barriers through training or mentoring arrangements.

Enhanced training

Two other factors in an employee’s successful return to work are best addressed through training and development of the employee’s manager and the provider’s case manager. 

Many managers are unsure of their role in maintaining the connection with the absent employee and how to navigate the conversation about the return-to-work strategy so it won’t be seen as an interrogation. Too often, they shy away from any communication at all. 

The second factor is the relationship between the employee and their case manager. Case managers can play a decisive role in helping the employee navigate the disability, recovery and return-to-work process.

They provide access to resources and services where required, and co-ordinate the details of the return-to-work plan with the employer.

For these reasons, employers should look for a provider that demonstrates a commitment to training and development, and has rigorous quality control practices. In particular, they should ask their provider about new practices they’re developing or piloting, what outcomes are being achieved and what this might mean for their employees. 

Solutions within reach

Being proactive and recognizing and addressing changing health trends are all actions employers can take to manage health, wellness and disability in the workplace.

Developing proactive accommodation and return-to-work processes, and then aligning themselves with providers that demonstrate a commitment to implementing innovative disability management practices can help employers control their exposure to the rising number, duration, and cost of disability claims.

Brad Fedorchuk is senior vice-president of customer experience and marketing, group customer, at Great-West Life in Winnipeg. For more information and training related to accommodating workplace disabilities and successful return-to-work strategies, visit workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com.