Education, Boss Impact Return-To-Work Timing

Education, Boss Impact Return-To-Work Timing

Study finds age also a key factor in bouncing back

Researchers are finding that among the key factors that keep injured employees from making a speedy return to work are lower education levels, age and distrust of the boss.

The information was turned up in a study by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers' Compensation Research Institute, which surveyed 3,000 injured workers from California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Workers most likely to stay out longest are older, less educated, feel their bosses don't believe them and have suffered back injuries or fractures, according to WCRI. Those who stayed out of work longer also included those who had initially more severe injuries, experienced less effective recoveries and were part-time employees.

Sharon Fox, one of the researchers on the study, said those with less education potentially may have more physical labor-intensive jobs that make it more difficult to return to work, but that the study team was "not able to get at the actual type of work the person was doing."

She said that those in the lower education category also might have more difficulty changing employers or pursuing other employment opportunities.

Other research data from the study showed that workers 55 and older, when compared to workers between the ages of 25 and 39, were 12-to-35 percentage points less likely to return to work and are out of work 62-to-276 percent longer.

WCRI said that by 2012, there will be 11 million more workers over the age of 55 in the labor force, creating unique demands on return-to-work programs.

The differences between older and younger workers, the study found, were in California, Massachusetts and Texas. Ms. Fox said she did not have a specific explanation as to why age was not a factor in Pennsylvania. The knowledge that older workers are harder to get back to work, she added, might be used to make claims handlers more sensitive and accommodating to workers in those age categories.

Workers in the category of those who reported less-trusting relationships with their supervisors were 5-to-16 percentage points less likely to return to work and were out of work 33-to-164 percent longer after injuries, WCRI found. The longer absences for injuries were noted among employees who expressed concern that supervisors thought they were "faking" injuries.

On the other side of this coin, the researchers noted that supervisors' concerns about faking might be legitimate and their estimates "may be a composite both of low trust of their supervisors...and supervisors' suspicion of fraud on the part of injured workers."

The researchers pointed out the cost-effectiveness of training managers to improve employee relations. As an example, they said a California company with 200 employees and five managers could invest $15,000 in training--less than the $19,400 it would cost the company if four workers were off longer because of poor relations with supervisors.

A consistent predictor of return-to-work outcomes was a worker's perception of the initial severity of the injury and the effectiveness of recoveries, the survey found. WCRI said policies that impact the physical consequences of an injury by minimizing injury severity and promoting more effective recoveries have the potential to improve average return-to-work outcomes by as much as 15 weeks.

Ms. Fox explained that research on severity was accomplished by asking workers their perception of their health before their injury and one week afterward, and having them rate their health on a number of questions as to the amount of pain they were in and any physical limitations they felt.

Workers with back injuries were out of work 35-to-108 percent longer than workers with inflammations, lacerations and contusions. So, disability prevention and return-to-work programs that target back injuries may present "win-win" opportunities for employers and workers, WCRI said.

Infographic, with college graduate cap:

Flag: Key Factor

Head: Education Pays For WC

Text:

On the subject of education and its impact on workers' comp claims, WCRI researchers found that:

o In all four states studied, workers who had less than a high school education were 31 percentage points less likely to return to work than their better educated counterparts.

o Workers with high school diplomas return to work 10-to-16 weeks faster than high school dropouts.

o Workers with only a grade-school education were out of work two-to-4.5-times longer than high school graduates.