A Survey of Disability Management Approaches in Ontario Workplaces
| Principal Investigator(s): | Renee Williams (McMaster University)
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| Co-Investigator(s): | Muriel Westmorland (McMaster University); John Lavis, Harry Shannon (McMaster University, Institute for Work & Health); Benjamin Amick (University of Texas)
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| Sponsoring Institution: | McMaster University |
Objective
- to identify the disability management (DM) approaches in education, hotel/motel, and health care workplaces in Ontario
- to investigate the relationships between DM practices and work disability
- to examine the psychometric properties of the Employer Organizational Policies and Practices (OPP) Questionnaire — the 52-item Employer OPP asks respondents to rate thee xtent to which their workplace achieves eight DM practices
- to obtain employees’ perceptions of workplace DM
- to examine the psychometric properties of the Employee OPP Questionnaire — the Employee OPP is a 22-item version of the Employer OPP and asks respondents to rate the extent to which the items match the participants’ experiences with workplace DM.
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Method
The study was conducted in two phases: the employer survey phase and the employee phase. In the employer phase, a random sample of 1004 workplaces in education (N=333), hotel/motel (N=335), and health care (N=336) received a mailed Employer OPP. In the employee phase, 7 focus groups and 24 individual interviews with 58 employees with work-relatewd injuries or disability were cobducted to obtain employees’ perceptions of workplace DM. Participants completed the Employee OPP at the end of each focus group or interview. Recruitment was carried out with the assistance of the WSIB, who mailed out 450 letters to employees in southern Ontario who had sustained a work-related injury within the past three years asking them to participate. Several union representatives and health care clinics also were approached.
Results
One hundred and fifty-seven educational workplaces (47%), 110 hotel/motel facilities (33%), and 188 health care workplaces (56%) participated. For the employer survey phase, a one-way analysis of variance for each practice showed that there were statistically significant differences between the sectors in ergonomic practices (e.g., jobs are designed to reduce heavy lifting and repetitive movement), disability case management (e.g., follow-up contacts with employees off work are made), return to work (e.g., job accommodations are made to enable return to work), and people-oriented culture (e.g., trust in employer/employee relationships). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that safety diligence (e.g., working conditions and equipment are well maintained), people-oriented culture, and safety leadership (e.g., improving safety performance) were associated with lower claims. The Employer OPP showed good reliability between items and adequate validity in that the items correlated well with the appropriate DM practice.
Conclusions
The results indicate that the practices of safet diligence, people-oriented culture, and safety leadership are most effective in reducing injury claims. Both the Employer OPP and the Employee OPP Questionnaires seem to be promising instruments that can be used to assess and monitor workplace DM.
Employers, human resources, unions, rehabilitation providers, and policyt makers need to place greater emphasis on the role of DM practices in the prevention and treatment of work-related injuries and disability. Knowledge transfer studies to human resources and DM practitioners are necessary to enhance the implementation of best practices in DM. With improved knowledge of DM practices and collaborative work with workplace parties, human resources and DM practitioners will be better equipped to achieve the goals of workplace DM.
Publications
Renee M. Williams, Muriel G. Westmorland, Harry S. Shannon, Farah Rasheed, Benjamin C. Amick III (2005), “Disability management practices in education, hotel/motel, and health care workplaces.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 47(3):217-226.
For more information:
rwilliam@mcmaster.ca
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