1. The Peer Resource Network Session Two: Return-to-Work 101
Introduce facilitators and participants (what organization do they work for? What is there position?) – to reacquaint participants.
Introduce Client Services Rep – explain roles
Updated: May 2017

2. The Peer Resource Network: Connecting Leaders, Sparking Change
What is the Peer Resource Network?
Provide leadership teams with a non-judgemental environment to share and learn about occupational health and safety (OH&S) and return-to-work (RTW) best-practices
Connect leadership teams with external resources to support positive change in OH&S and RTW practices
SCBC Lead - Introduction – purpose, rationale. Also introduce sponsors and identify their roles (SafeCare BC, WorkSafeBC)

3. Return-to-Work 101
Goal: understand the basics of return-to-work programs
Learning Outcomes for Return-to-Work / Recover-at-Work Program:
Have a general understanding of the purpose and understanding of the basic components
Identify opportunities in your workplace to improve your RTW process by learning from your peers
Understand the roles of various stakeholders in creating and implementing a RTW/ SAW program, including: Worker; Employer; WorkSafeBC; Health care professional; and Unions.
Have access to tools and resources to further your understanding of RTW/ SAW
Increase awareness of RTW trends and applicable data
SCBC Lead - Review of key learning outcomes for session

4. What does return-to-work mean to you?
What is a Return-to-Work program?
What does return-to-work mean to you?
SCBC Lead- Group Exercise: Brainstorm with participants what “return-to-work” means to them. Find out if they are all following consistent practice (don’t spend too long on this) 3-5 mins=group discussion

5. Graduated Return-to-Work or Recover-at-Work
Return-to-Work: Definitions
Return-to-Work vs.
Graduated Return-to-Work or Recover-at-Work
WorkSafe Rep(s) to Lead: provides participants with clarity on the differences between return to work, graduated RTW, and recover at work programs.
Ask participants about what practices they are currently using in their workplaces.
Provide information about Recover at Work Best Practices and Toolkit (if available).

6. Why have a RTW program? Benefits to Workers Benefits to Employers
Maintains ability to earn regular wages
Promotes well-being and recovery of injured workers
Improved mental well-being
Stay connected to the work environment
Stay on regular work schedule
Creates a sense of security and stability
Avoids dependence on a disability system
Increase employee retention
Increase likelihood of a successful return to work
Improved productivity and morale of employees
Reduced claims costs
Lessened risk of employees going on long-term disability
Minimize WorkSafeBC premiums (via better Experience Rating)
SafeCare BC Lead - Group exercise: Engage the group in a discussion around the reasons for having a formal policy/program in place. Get the participants to brainstorm the benefits to both workers and employers, then reveal the answers to highlight anything that has been missed.
Benefits to Employees:
Ability to earn regular wages
Promotes physical health, well-being and recovery of injured workers
Stay connected to the work environment
Improved mental well being
Staying on a regular work schedule
Avoiding dependence on a disability system
Having a sense of security and stability

7. Debunking GRTW myths…
Return-to-work programs are only for those who have been injured at work.
An employee can’t start a return-to-work program until their WorkSafeBC claim is approved.
There is no such thing as “light duties” for care staff.
There’s nothing we can have the person do, they’re too injured, they can’t do anything until they’re 100%.
If they come back, they’re going to disqualify themselves for disability benefits.
Coworkers think that other staff on graduated return to work programs are slackers.
Modified work continues forever (it never ends)
WorkSafe BC Reps
Debunk myths, and reframe with truths.
Ask participants what misconceptions that have heard or previously had about RTW

8. How to Modify Duties: How to Modify/How to Help Employee Recover
Remove worker from position entirely.
Assign a helper for the full or part of their shift.
Provide appropriate equipment & tools: e.g. chairs, telescopic dusting wands, carts, wheelchair, etc.
Give breaks often: For example, one 5 min break every 30 min or 2-3 min micro- breaks as needed.
Move between several different time-assigned tasks throughout the shift:
E.g. dusting for 15 min, 24/7 training for 30 min, taking food temperatures for 15 min, filling condiments for 20 min, etc.
Assist worker with getting to and from work if medically supported; usually for lower body injuries.
“How to Modify/How to Help Employee Recover”
Remove worker from position entirely.
Assign a helper for the full or part of their shift.
Chairs, telescopic dusting wands, carts, wheelchair, etc.
For example, one 5 min break every 30 min or 2-3 min micro-breaks as needed.
Move between several different time-assigned tasks throughout the shift i.e. dusting for 15 min, 24/7 training for 30 min, taking food temperatures for 15 min, filling condiments for 20 min, etc.
Assist worker with getting to and from work if medically supported; usually for lower body injuries.

9. RTW: Keys to Success For a successful RTW program, you need to:
Establish supportive workplace policies and climate, including:
Communication strategies
Physical environment
Ensure communication and cooperation between the:
Workers
Healthcare professionals
Union representatives (or worker representatives)
Work with the group to pull out key learnings. Emphasize that supportive work environments are more than just policies and procedures – they can include having the appropriate equipment around to support a RTW.
Ask participants to rate their knowledge of their organization RTW policies and communications strategies:
What would have to happen in order for them to increase their awareness of their RTW policies and communications strategies
How would it benefit them to increase their knowledge of their RTW policies/ communications strategies?
How would it benefit and support others?

10. RTW: Keys to Success Con’t
For a successful RTW program, you need to:
Provide offers of modified work
Implement or provide educational programs for managers/ supervisors
Conduct on-going evaluations of the program
Encourage the group to brainstorm a bit around “provide offers of modified work”. If it’s not brought up, be sure to note that modified work can include things outside of the staff member’s “traditional” role, including working in a different capacity / department, offering modified hours, finding ways to adapt equipment to support a staff member’s safe return, etc.

11. Roles of key stakeholders
Q. How do these stakeholders contribute to a successful RTW program?
Employers and supervisors
Workers
Co-workers
Union representative (or worker representative)
Health care provider
WorkSafeBC
External Disability Management Organizations (if applicable)
Group exercise:. Ask the group how they have engaged with these different stakeholder groups, what worked well and what they would have done differently (if anyone is willing to share). If no real-life examples are forthcoming, prompt the group to think about how these different stakeholders could be engaged to make the return-to-work process more streamlined / improve the likelihood of a successful return-to-work.
Employer: Connect with the employee to see how they’re feeling. Work with union (e.g. local steward) and employee to develop RTW program and evaluate the program jointly. Ensure appropriate policies and procedures are in place to support effective RTW programs.
Supervisor: Check-in regularly with the injured worker to see how they’re feeling, how the RTW is going. Provide input into the initial RTW design and provide feedback into its evaluation.
Worker: by participating; being part of the development of the modified work and ensuring that they see their health care professional. Communicate what’s working and what’s not working back to the employer / supervisor. Bottom line: worker engagement increases chances of success.
Co-workers: Be supportive and understanding of your colleague’s limitations as they progress through their RTW.
Health care provider: Works with the worker to provide guidance on worker’s abilities; monitors worker’s health during GRTW.
Worker / union representative: Connect with the employee to see how they’re feeling. Work with employer and employee to develop RTW program and evaluate the program jointly. Provide general support for the worker and ensure the injured worker’s coworkers understand what the injured worker is doing (so coworkers don’t see them as a burden, for example, or “slacking off”).
WorkSafeBC: Ensure that information that can be relayed to employer re: physical abilities and duration of anticipated RTW / restrictions is relayed (e.g. info from doctor).
Provide reference into how EDMP / third-party providers fit into this process. (Process is still “owned” by the employer).
Q: in your current RTW program, which stakeholders are you not engaging, or could engage more?

12. Reflection Recover at Work at your organization or care site:
What does your organization/care site have in place to support a RTW program?
What aspects are working well?
What aspects need improvement or might be missing?
SCBC Lead – Pairs exercise: Ask each participant to individually reflect on what their care site/organization has in place for their own stay-at-work / return-to-work policies and programs, and what might be missing. Ask them to identify two key components that either need enhancing or are missing. Optional: group members may feel comfortable sharing what they need with the group, or they may not (either is fine).

13. Summary
RTW program enables employees to return to work (or recover at work) safely and effectively.
Using best practices around RTW saves $$ and improve workplace culture.
The keys to success for a program include:
Having a culture that creates a supportive work environment
Effective communication between stakeholders, and cooperation between labour-management
Offering modified work
Ensuring managers, supervisors are trained in policies and procedures
Evaluating your program
SCBC Lead – link back to the Safety Culture Framework: Are they more reactive in terms of their RTW program, calculative, proactive or generative?

14. Designing & Implementing an Effective RTW Program
By the end of this session, you will:
Understand the roadmap associated with a return-to-work (RTW) or recover-at-work program, including the roles of various stakeholders in each step.
Identify strategies to streamline your care site/organization’s program, and understanding different implementation approaches to increase the effectiveness of a care site/organizations’ programs.
Be familiar with and have access to practical tools and resources to help reinvigorate your care site/organization’s program.
Review of key learning outcomes for session
Ask Maria to speak to GSS’s Return to Work/ SAW program.

15. RTW roadmap See handout provided
Provide participants with handout of the roadmap for them to reference and follow along.
Provide a broad overview of the core processes, using an adapted version of the WorkSafeBC Injury Management Roadmap.

16. When an injury occurs – First steps
Think about your care site or organization:
Who do staff go to when someone is injured at work?
Who provides first aid?
What is the next step after worker receives first aid?
What links are there from this process to safety management systems? (hint: think prevention).
What role does WorkSafeBC have at this point?
Group exercise: Engage the group in a discussion around what the first step in a stay at work / GRTW program looks like regarding the provision of first aid. Encourage discussion (if needed) by asking the following questions:
Who do staff go to if they’re injured at work? Who provides first aid treatment?
What’s typically the next step that occurs immediately after that? (E.g. are people encouraged to stay at work, are they commonly sent home? Etc.)
What role do incident investigations play at this point? Are there any other links you can think of that tie back to safety management systems? (e.g. JOHS committee involved? Do you revisit your safe work procedures? Do you revisit how your organization provides training?).

17. When an injury occurs – First steps
Discussion Question:
What are some examples of how your care site/ organization demonstrates a supportive culture when injuries first occur?
Group exercise: Encourage the group to brainstorm or share stories around how their organization demonstrates a supportive culture. If needed, reference the following prompts below:
“I’m sorry to hear you got hurt. Are you OK?”
“Is there anything we can do for you right now?”
Ensure the supervisor and aware of your organization’s RTW policy.
Ensure that staff are aware of your organization’s RTW policy.
Remember that any incident should trigger other parts of your Safety Management System (link back to Session #2) – e.g. proper incident investigation / corrective measures taken to prevent the injured worker from being re-injured and prevent other workers from being injured in the future.

18. When an injury occurs – First steps
Why report an injury early?
Investigate and correct the underlying cause for the injury
Early identification of an issue means an injury can be treated more effectively and successfully.
May make the difference between a time-loss claim and no time-loss claim (health care-only)
Using the map as an anchor point, explore the first step regarding the provision of first aid. Points to emphasize:
Encourage early reporting! Early reporting of issues allows you to do two things:
Investigate and correct the underlying cause
For the staff member, earlier identification of an issue means an injury can be caught early and treated more effectively and successfully. It can even make the difference between a time-loss claim and no time-loss claim (health care-only)
Wherever possible, encourage the staff member to stay at work (e.g. offer suitable modified duties right away).
Remember the keys to success!
Cultivate a compassionate, supportive culture:
Group exercise: Throughout this discussion, encourage the group to contribute ideas and experiences around how these aspects could be successfully implemented.

19. Take away Message: When an injury occurs – First steps
Wherever possible, begin a conversation with the worker to let them know about the possibility of modified duties, and encourage them to stay at work!
Ask for examples of how they determine whether an injured worker should go to the hospital, go home, or could stay at the work site

20. When an injury occurs – More medical aid required
Think about your care site or organization:
What happens at your site if someone needs to see their health care provider, and how long does it typically take?
What info do you as the employer communicate to the healthcare provider?
What customized follow-up schedule (that you and the worker agree on) do you have?
How is information communicated to the staff member during this process?
Group exercise: Engage the group in a discussion around what happens at their organizations right now if a staff member needs to see their doctor or health care provider as a result of an injury. Encourage discussion (if needed) by asking the following questions:
If a staff member needs to see their health care provider, what does that process look like? How long does it typically take? What information do you as an employer relay to the health care provider?
What sort of follow-up or check-in process do you follow after the staff member has seen their health care provider? How is this communicated to the staff member?
How do staff members and the employer liaise with WorkSafeBC to ensure that the incident is reported?

21. When an injury occurs – More medical aid required
Take Away Messages:
Staff member’s healthcare provider is an important member of the RTW team.
Provide RTW package to injured staff member which includes:
Letter to the healthcare provider
Healthcare provider RTW planning form
Letter to the staff member
Anything else?
Establish follow up meeting time with staff member & involve the staff member in the RTW planning process.
Using the map as an anchor point, explore this step. Points to emphasize:
The staff member’s health care provider is an important member of their RTW team
Ensure that the staff member is provided a RTW package. This package should include:
Letter to the health care provider
Health care provider RTW planning form (to be filled out by the physician to identify what the staff member is capable of doing)
Letter to the staff member
Appropriate WorkSafeBC forms (e.g. Form 6 for employees)
Establish a time for a follow-up meeting with the staff member
Ties-in with keys to success re: staff involvement in their own GRTW planning
Ensure that WorkSafeBC is informed (tie-in with Session #3) – Form 7 is completed
Group exercise: Throughout this discussion, encourage the group to contribute ideas and experiences around how these aspects could be successfully implemented or have been at their organizations.

22. When an injury occurs – Offer suitable modified duties
Think about a particular case where you modified the duties for an injured worker:
What modified duties did you have them do?
How do you identify them?
Who was involved in the conversation?
How would you describe the culture around modified duties at your care site?
Key Message: When an injury occurs: Offer suitable modified duties
Group exercise: Engage the group in a discussion around what types of modified duties they offer injured staff members, how those duties are identified, and how the offer is communicated to the staff member. Note that you may arrive at this point either after additional medical attention has been provided, or in the case where the staff member was able to stay at work, but couldn’t go back to full duties.

23. When an injury occurs – Offer suitable modified duties
Benefit of Modified Duties:
Decrease the length and cost of the claim.
Increase the likelihood that an injured staff member will successfully recover from the injury.
More likely to result in a successful return*
Using the map as an anchor point, explore this step. Points to emphasize:
Offering modified duties decreases the length and cost of a claim, and increases the likelihood that an injured staff member will successfully recover from their injury.
All offers need to be made in the context of a supportive environment. A supportive environment includes having supportive managers/supervisors as well as a physical environment (e.g. equipment) that supports a safe return to work.
Modified duties that are developed in cooperation with the staff member and their union representative (if applicable) are more likely to result in a successful return.
It is vitally important that the underlying cause of the injury be identified and addressed (Session #2 tie-in) to ensure that the staff member isn’t re-injured at work (or someone else is hurt).
Group exercise: Throughout this discussion, encourage the group to contribute ideas and experiences around how these aspects could be or have been successfully implemented.
(*when developed with input from injured worker & union/worker representative)

24. When an injury occurs - Staff who are on modified duties / monitoring progress
Take Away Messages:
Supervisors and coworkers support injured staff in their modified duties.
Educate staff about care site/ organization’s policy on Recover at Work.
Appreciate the injured staff member’s contributions to the care site/ organization while they are on modified duties and check in regularly.
Engage the injured staff member as an equal partner in the process.
Group exercise: Engage group in a discussion on what they think this stage should look like in practice. Encourage participants to share their own programs or approaches (both the ones that they’ve found are successful, and the ones they’ve found didn’t work).
Using the map as an anchor point, explore this step. Points to emphasize:
Having supportive supervisors, managers, and coworkers is key (tie-in with Session #3). Ensure that staff are aware of the organization’s policy on stay at work / GRTW and that they see value in it (e.g. “an extra set of hands” vs. “a burden”). Your organization’s local union representative (if applicable) can be a big asset here.
Check-in regularly to see how things are going.
Take a collaborative approach to building up the program. Involve the staff member in this process as an equal partner.
Ensure that the physical environment is designed to support the staff member (e.g. different space set-up, specialized chair, ergonomic keyboard, etc.)
Ensure that there is good communication with the staff member’s health care provider
Group exercise: Throughout this discussion, encourage the group to contribute ideas and experiences around how these aspects could be successfully implemented.

25. What happens if…?
Think about a specific modified duty case at your organization that didn’t go smoothly…
How would you address this problem in the future?
Group exercise: First, ask the group what examples they have. They may be able to generate particular scenarios that are similar to the ones below. Encourage the group to collectively problem-solve each scenario (don’t just give them the answer). Where necessary, provide insight and suggestions, but let the group drive their own solution development
Possible scenarios:
The treating doctor doesn’t seem to acknowledge your offer of modified duties, and is recommending two weeks’ of rest.
The staff member wants to return to work, but hasn’t been able to get in to see their health care provider.
You can’t get in touch with the injured staff member.
The injured staff member’s claim is still pending with WorkSafeBC.
After a trial with a GRTW, the injured staff member still isn’t able to return to their regular duties.
Key message: With all of these scenarios, take a supportive, collaborative approach. For example, if you’re having difficulty getting in touch with an injured staff member, work with the union. If you’re unsure about a GRTW program, get in touch with WorkSafeBC. Bottom line: just because you hit a roadblock doesn’t mean you give up on the process. There are a lot of resources outside of your organization to help!

26. Summary
An effective RTW program involves elements of leadership, culture, proactive planning, and collaboration.
Effective programs have clear processes that are strategically - communicated.
Effective programs are a team effort.
Wrap-up exercise: Engage the group in a discussion about the session’s content. Ask them if they’ve experienced any “lightbulb” moments, and if so, ask them to share that moment with the group. Review the map as a summary slide.

27. Thank-you & Questions? Conclusion
End presentation, begin open networking / informal Q & A / group brainstorm