Work-from-Home Jobs...and why you should never consider them a viable Return-to-Work option for workers' compensation claims

There are competitors out there who's "RTW Program" includes work-from-home subsidized jobs for workers. One competitor in particular has YOU, the carrier/insured, pay for the interview and placement of the worker! Little weird, right? Worse yet, the job is subsidized, mundane and the vendor has been quoted in court saying that less than 1% of their referrals result in a permanent job placement after the subsidized period.

YOU pay for some mundane phone survey/collection job, giving the claimant no vocational options and from the >1% statistic, no realistic future. Injured workers are NOT robots and they deserve true employment options out in working society. This type of approach to RTW is lazy and uninspired.

Your selection of a Return-to-Work vendor is a crucial choice and one that should not be taken lightly. Literally millions of your dollars are at stake.

Below are snippets from Workcompcentral that explains how a certain RTW/Voc vendor's subsidized work program was embarrassed in court, and cost their client over $2 million:

"In the recent case of....the arbitrator assigned considered whether the provision of job placement for home-based phone survey/data collection work was a valid employment position for petitioner. After hearing testimony from two vocational counselors as well as testimony from the alternative placement company who located the phone/telecom position, the Arbitrator found the job was “not found in a competitive job market” and was not “real employment.” An award for permanent total disability followed."

"....only one half of one percent of workers continue their work after the insurance subsidized period. This was a particular point of concern for the Arbitrator. In our view....The employer would have been better suited to use a more traditional voc-rehab approach."

"It is important to note also the only two certified vocational counselors in the case both testified no stable job market existed for Petitioner. They also testified the services ....was not valid employment....Respondent was left with no argument to rebut the conclusions for permanent total disability rendered by the certified vocational counselors. An award for permanent-total disability to the tune of $1,243.00 per week or $64,636.00/year followed accordingly. Just imagine, a healthy 53-year-old man may very well live 30 more years. That’s a payout of almost $2 million!"

Why work-from-home jobs DO NOT work:

Workers remain in the home, which may not alleviate workers’ feeling of stagnancy or recovery-related depression
Jobs often are part time and don’t offer much-needed benefits
Available jobs often don’t match the workers’ skill level or interests
Workers do not feel like part of a working society and lack social connections
There is little to no potential for promotion or pay raise
Workers believe working at home is the only option for them, thus demoralizing them
Workers aren’t making nearly enough, and possibly the wage disparity is prohibitive
Arbitrators could easily deem the job not credible, thus placing the worker back on your workers’ compensation rolls. We have an Illinois court decision highlighting this issue - as noted above!

We have a better way.

Workfinders USA has located countless viable Return-to-Work positions for injured workers. We don’t cruise online job listings – we contact employers directly via telephone and match jobs to the injured worker. Thanks to our ability to communicate with employers and our willingness to work very hard, we can locate positions that aren’t advertised, but that fit your workers’ needs and limitations.

Plus, we work with employers to help them meet ADA guidelines while providing meaningful employment to your claimant. We work with employers to ensure that physical restrictions are accommodated accurately. Also, we work with your claimant, setting up interviews and following up post-interview. Your claimants get much more than a list of possible jobs – they get a Return-to-Work program that supplies the best chance for success.

Throughout the entire process, we communicate with potential employers, injured workers, and you to improve significantly the chances of a successful outcome.

What's your benefit? Not only do we give you the best possible chance for successful outcomes, but our program is proven to save our clients substantial money on work comp claims.

To see how we’ve delivered successful outcomes for our customers, read some of our Case Studies.