Preplacement Precautions
Your agency strives to keep employees safe on the job whether they’re full-time, part-time or seasonal staff. Training and safety procedures are essential, but there’s another important factor you should consider even before someone begins working at your agency — preplacement screening.
“All the training in the world will not help if an employee simply is not capable of meeting the physical demands and other essential functions of the job,” says Jesse Kinsland, PDRMA Risk Management Consultant. Kinsland reminds members to focus on the specific physical requirements of each job as you begin making seasonal hiring decisions.
“Proper preplacement screening can determine if a prospective employee is able to perform the physical aspects of their jobs correctly and without an unreasonable risk of injury,” he notes. “LRN #1074 provides guidelines for job screening, which should include more than just a review of the job description. You need to look at the strength and flexibility needed to do the work properly and safely.”
Each spring Hoffman Estates Park District hires between 200 and 500 seasonal workers in light duty, administration and maintenance roles. “Before hiring part-time/seasonal positions, we rely on the individual hiring managers to evaluate the physical abilities of each candidate,” explains Eric Leninger, Human Resources Manager for Hoffman Estates. “In addition, each new full-time hire, and each part-time hire within the maintenance department, is sent to a medical facility for preplacement screening by a medical professional. They administer physical tests for lifting, pushing, pulling, twisting and other examples of physical activity (based on essential job functions). They are evaluated by medical professionals to make sure the candidates can handle the rigors of each job, and we receive the report.”
Preplacement procedures are also important in other instances. A particularly critical time in the preplacement procedure is when a worker returns from a workers’ comp injury. “We want to make sure employees do not perform duties that could cause reinjury before they are medically cleared to do those tasks,” says Leninger. “So, for instance, when a full-time worker received clearance to return to light duty work after falling, his assigned tasks were modified accordingly until he was cleared to return to full duty.
“In another case, a seasonal worker who was with us 8–10 months a year had a rotator cuff injury; one arm was in a sling. It was months before he was cleared for full duty, but since he had full use of one arm, we gave him painting jobs that fit within the physical restrictions prescribed by his doctor. It was good for him because he wasn’t missing work, and we were able to keep a productive worker.”
Leninger notes that evaluating workers’ abilities after a workers’ comp injury needs to be done on a case-by-case basis to choose the appropriate temporary light-duty work until recovery is complete. Following these guidelines works well for everyone involved.
“We don’t have to locate a substitute and train them,” Leninger says, “and we save on hiring costs as well.”
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