Navigating an employee’s return to work after a disability leavecan be complex for your clients. There can be many unknowns,including what questions an employer can ask the employee about hisor her condition, what needs to be put in place for a successfulreturn, and, the No. 1 thing: when can an employee actually beexpected to return to work.

Your clients might also not be aware of the proper course ofaction for determining when or how to help an employee return froma leave of absence. Making things even more complex are themultiple pieces of legislation that affect the way these situationsneed to be handled. Primarily, these include:

• The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers with more than 50employees to grant an employee with a serious health condition upto 12 weeks of leave to deal with a medical issue.
• Alternatively, the Americans with Disabilities Act AmendmentsAct (ADAAA) requires an employer to provide accommodations, whichmay include extended medical leave, to an employee with a disability to help them in the workplace.

Although both laws need to be considered when navigating anemployee’s return to work, it can still get tricky. When anemployee who is on leave approaches 12 weeks of protected leave,the employer has to make some decisions: Do I approve an extended leave? How are reasonableaccommodations established? Just how does the employer proceed?

As a broker, you can help put your clients on the right path tonavigating an employee’s options for a return from a leave ofabsence by encouraging them to work with their disability carrier.Educating your clients on how a consultant from their disabilityinsurance can help them determine a course of action to put theright solution in place for an employee’s successful return towork.

Here are a few ways disability carriers can help:

Open the lines of communication with employees

A consultant can communicate directly with the employee and hisor her medical team to gather information about the employee’scondition— the type of information an employer is not typicallyprivy to. With this information, the consultant can assess theemployee’s return-to-work potential and timing and help determinewhat accommodations could be useful.

Lend a helping hand

Because coordinating with all parties involved while alsooperating within the bounds of multiple laws can be confusing andtaxing for an HR manager, leveraging the expertise of a disabilitycarrier’s consultants on these cases can eliminate a lot of stressand extra work for your client.

Assess equipment and schedule needs

On-site consultants can help employers realize an employee’sreturn-to-work needs. For example, they can find ergonomicequipment and worksite accommodations to meet an employee’s medicalrequirements, helping the employee return to work and focus onoverall productivity. These consultants can also work with yourclient to establish temporary or modified schedules for anemployee, whether it’s a shorter workday or longer breaks to helpwith an employee’s recovery.

Lower overall health care costs

Taking proactive measures to work with a disability carrier thatoffers return-to-work and accommodations assistance can help saveyour clients on health care costs in the long run. On-siteconsultants can help employees reach their return-to-work needs,keeping them healthy and productive.

Educating clients on how they can work closely with consultantsfrom their disability carrier — including understanding the nuancesinvolved with leave-related regulations — helps ensure that anemployee can return to work the right way, at the righttime.