By Peter Moffat

In my previous blog post, we reviewed the first element of a good disability management program – awareness. Now that you’re familiar with some of the ways to be aware of the health of your organization, we’re going to review the concept of health promotion as it relates to disability management.

The main objective of a disability management program is to minimize the financial impact of an absence from work, either through preventing a disability claim, or helping to shorten its duration. In order to successfully achieve this, a disability management program should integrate a health promotion component.

There are a wide variety of tools and resources you can utilize to promote health across your organization. Health profiling is a great place to start. You can conduct health risk assessments (both physical and psychological), ergonomic assessments, and biometric screening to get a better understanding of the state of health of your employees and the risks inherent in your organization. These assessments will allow you to address and correct any health issues arising out of the workplace.

Once you’ve determined the general health of your organization, you can tailor some health and wellness initiatives and strategies to help keep your employees physically and mentally healthy. Some examples are educational workshops (lunch and learns), lifestyle management courses (back health, stress management, etc.), fitness challenges, etc.

Finally, for those individuals in your organization who are already disabled or absent from work, participating in vocational rehab and creating return to work programs can make the transition back to work easier for all stakeholders. The goal in mind is to shorten the duration of the claim and transition the employee back to productive work as quickly as possible.

Refer to Part One andPart Two or read Part Four now.

Peter Moffat is an associate with TRG Group Benefits. There are many phrases one might use in a biography, and one that is rarely used is the word “attack” because of the risk it carries. But, when used properly, it’s one of the words that describe Peter Moffat. Learn more.