Just as an elite athlete would be assessed after injury prior to returning to full training or competition, workers returning from injury should similarly be assessed to ensure that they are capable of safely returning to the workplace without risk of aggravation or reinjury.
Why are Fitness For Work Assessments Important?
Employee Safety
A Fitness For Work assessment determines whether an employee is physically fit and capable of performing the requirements of the job or task. The results of this assessment will indicate what the risk of injury is for the employee when undertaking the work allowing informed decisions to be made in order to keep the employee safe.
Workers are given full recovery periods
Following an injury a Fit For Work Assessment can be used to ensure the workers has fully recovered from their injury and can safely return to their pre-injury role.
Creating Safer Work Conditions
A worker who can not safely perform a task or job will not only pose a risk to themselves but others in the same working environment. The Fit for Work Assessment ensures everyone in the work environment can safely perform their role. This minimises the chance of an accident which could potentially cause injury to others in the work environment.
Proactively Managing the Ageing Workforce
Fitness for work assessments are an increasingly beneficial strategy to manage an aging and unhealthy workforce. By performing fitness for work assessments periodically these assessments can be systemically used to ensure each worker continues to maintain the ability to safely perform the demands of their role and prevent injury and associated injury costs
What Does A Fitness For Work Assessment Involve?
- Questionnaire on workers medical history
- A musculoskeletal screen
- A functional capacity evaluation based on job requirements
- Audiometry (hearing) Testing
- Spirometry (Lung function) Testing
- Blood Pressure screen
- Vision Testing
- Drug and Alcohol Testing
Why Employ Health
Employ Health uses a systematic data driven approach so that our Fitness for Work Assessments can provide a thorough and safe approach to both the employee and workplace’s overall safety. We leverage our detailed knowledge of your workplace to evaluate whether an employee has the capacity to perform their work without risk to themselves or other employees.
Extensive Knowledge of the Job requirements
Prior to commencing a Fitness for Work Assessment, Employ Health will commit to collecting accurate job data of the role including exact lifting requirements and frequency of manual tasks. This database is then utilised when performing a functional capacity evaluation to ensure that a worker’s capacity is assessed to the exact job requirements of the role and can work/resume work safely.
Elite Performance
As a leading performer in Workplace Health, Employ Health’s team of physiotherapists are all held to an extremely high standard of performance. Physiotherapists conducting fitness for work assessments are regularly reviewed internally and undergo extensive training to ensure that professional and meticulous assessments are conducted every time.
Adaptability
Employ Health currently provides assessments across a multitude of workplaces and industries. We recognise the fact that different workplaces and roles will have different requirements that do not benefit a one-size fits all assessment approach. Prior to commencing assessments we will establish the individual requirements of the assessment for the workplace and adapt the assessment and processes to meet the needs of the partner.
Being fit for work means you have the capacity to perform the requirements and tasks of your job in a safe manner.
Specific legislation will vary by state and country. Effectively every workplace will need to comply with this legislation to ensure they are taking the necessary measures to ensure safety of the worker and workplace. Your company’s Health and Safety team or Employ Health Physiotherapist will be able to advise you further of the specific legislation in your area.
This will depend on internal company policy and individual state/country requirements. As a generalisation a Fit for Work Medical will generally last until there is indication that another assessment is required i.e a circumstance such as an injury has occurred which puts a worker’s ability to safely perform work into question.
Following a Fitness for Work Assessment where a worker has demonstrated the capacity to safely complete the work required, a summary outcome of the assessment will be provided to the party who requested the assessment.