Employees who go out on disability leave may return sooner and energized or later and demoralized, depending on the quality of workplace resource programs, which might include the company's disability insurance carrier; disease management; wellness; and employee assistance programs.

So says the Employee Disability Leave study from the Standard Insurance Company, which says that how employers handle employees' health conditions can negatively affect productivity, time out of office and overall employee experience.

“With benefits packages being a core component of most employers' recruitment and retention strategies, employers are trying to find more creative ways to manage costs and address the key needs of employees,” Jung Ryu, national accounts practice leader at The Standard, says in a statement. “As employers look to do more to boost financial wellness efforts, they may be missing a key way to support employees with disabling health conditions. These employees are often financially stressed, and their condition can often worsen or take longer to recover if not addressed.”

Holistic support coming from workplace resource programs can go a long way toward improving the situation. The study found that 97 percent of employees who were able to stay at work were connected with a workplace resource program. But that doesn't happen everywhere; 47 percent of employees with a chronic condition are not referred to any workplace resource program.

“Workplace resources—such as a disability carrier or EAP provider—can support employees while they work through an illness or injury and go beyond addressing their health condition,” Ryu continues, adding, “Because many employees have concerns about the state of their finances after a health condition, these services can provide holistic support. This approach can help shorten disability leave duration or prevent an employee taking leave altogether.”

Whether it's a chronic condition such as cancer, mental health, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, or a more-temporary disablement such as a broken bone, the amount of time spent out of the workplace depends on what's wrong. Fractures usually resulted in absences of 47 days, while chronic conditions averaged 64 days and mental health issues averaged 112 days.

And not surprisingly, employees fear for their jobs, with 60 percent saying that's what they were afraid of when reaching out to their direct supervisors. In fact, they'd rather approach HR about getting help than their direct managers, since 48 percent said their direct managers treated them differently because of their health compared with 39 percent who said that was the case with HR. In addition, employees who worked with their HR manager were able to return to work 44 percent faster than those who worked with their direct supervisor.

Still, getting help and accommodations from work meant a faster return to the job and even increased productivity, with 93 percent of employees saying they could perform their job effectively after receiving support from their employer and employees who were provided accommodations returning to work more than 30 days sooner than employees who weren't provided with support, on average.

Read more about helping employees get back to work:

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How employer support affects an employee's return to work after disability leave

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