How policy on employee involvement in work reintegration can yield its opposite: employee experiences in a Canadian setting

Abstract

Purpose: Canada has a long tradition of involving employee representatives in developing work reintegration policies and expects this to positively affect employee involvement to improve work reintegration success. The purpose of this study was to examine employee involvement in reintegration in a Canadian province as experienced by employees. Method: Fourteen semi-structured interviews were held with employees in a healthcare organization. The interview topic list was based on a review of local reintegration policy documents and literature. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using ethnographic methodology. Results Employees do not feel in control of their reintegration trajectory. In the phase of reporting sickness absence, they wrestle with a lack of understanding on how to report in sick. In the phase of reintegration planning and coordination, they hesitate to get involved in the organization of reintegration. In the phase of reintegration plan execution, employees encounter unfulfilled expectations on interventions. Conclusion: Employee involvement in the organization of reintegration makes them responsible for the development of reintegration trajectories. However, they consider themselves often incapable of completing this in practice. Moreover, employees experience that their contribution can boomerang on them.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• It is not that employees are not able to think along or decide on their reintegration trajectory but rather they are expected to do so at times when they cannot oversee their illness and/or recovery trajectory.

• Settings out reintegration procedures that are inflexible in practice do not recognize that employee involvement in work reintegration trajectories can develop over time.

• The disability management professional has a central role in organizing and supporting employee involvement in work reintegration, however, the employees do not experience this is indeed happening.

Keywords::

• Employee perspective
• employee involvement
• health care
• intervention
• return to work
• work reintegration

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the participants of this study and Noushin Khushrushahi, M.A., former Occupational Health & Safety Agency for Healthcare (OHSAH), BC, Canada, for her assistance. The authors kindly acknowledge Dr. Jaime Guzman, M.D., MSc, FRCPC and Renée-Louise Franche, PhD, both former OHSAH, BC, who supervised this study in Canada. The first author acknowledges her training at the Work Disability Prevention Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Strategic Training program, University of Sherbrooke, Montreal/University of Toronto, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Toronto, Canada. We acknowledge Ellen MacEachen, PhD, Institute for Work and Health; University of Toronto who provided helpful feedback.

Declaration of Interest: This work was financially supported by former OHSAH, BC, Canada through a Research Fellowship for Karin Maiwald.