What skills are needed by a ‘Return To Work’ coordinator?

Is your workplace a small organisation where return-to-work (RTW) issues crop up but once in a blue moon? Or is it a larger organisation with more claims than you can poke a stick at?

Either way - whether RTW coordination is something additional to your daily role in the workplace, or your sole responsibility - the job is a tricky one; and the right training will give you the skills and confidence to lead an ill or injured worker back to work successfully.

What are the training options?

Training and development needs vary according to case load, organisation size and the other work responsibilities of the RTW coordinator.

Typically, the larger the organisation, the larger the number of claims - hence the greater need for highly trained RTW coordinators with a good ability to focus on system and strategic work. The more knowledge you have as an RTW coordinator, the greater your ability to have broad influence within your workplace.

To get the right skills, an RTW coordinator needs training in two areas:

• Strategic - the development of policies, relationships and management structures that streamline return-to-work management; and
• Day-to-day (operational) activities - dealing with individual cases, issues and conversations.

Don’t get so bogged down in the operational tasks that you lose sight of the bigger picture - it’s often where there’s the most room for improvement.

RTW coordinators need to have skills developed in building relationships, engaging managers and training supervisors.

To gain or hone these skills, options for training include:

• Basic RTW training - usually involves a two-day course that assumes no prior knowledge, run at a number of training or rehabilitation centres;
• Industry association training, requiring attendance of, for example, four hours a week over a 10-week RTW coordinator course;
• University training - undergraduate or postgraduate courses run at selected universities, resulting in recognised professional rehabilitation qualifications;
• Other health tertiary qualifications, such as occupational therapy or physiotherapy, which are particularly relevant to larger organisations.

Other training options to complement the above include:

• Advanced communication skills, including active listening, influencing senior management, presentation skill development and conflict resolution and mediation;
• Spreadsheet and database management;
• Organisational management; and
• Software training.

While it might be easy to dismiss training - especially a short, two-day session - as less than essential to your role as RTW coordinator, it’s worth remembering that RTW coordination is a complex job.

Coordinators need to be able to:

• Balance the needs of individuals with the needs of the workplace;
• Deal with people in distress, as well as with busy supervisors who are juggling production matters; and
• Influence senior staff and external stakeholders and oversee program and policy development.

The extent to which these capabilities will be called upon depends largely on the size of the organisation and the number of cases or claims.

Both during and after training, coordinators should have or be developing:

• Knowledge of relevant compensation and privacy legislation;
• Understanding of organisational approaches to injury management;
• Capacity to develop effective relationships with supervisors, HR, health and safety, quality control, unions, senior management, external providers and workers;
• Ability to understand and review outcome results and case/claims data;
• Skills in consulting widely, taking on board the needs of various parties;
• Ability to effectively implement policy, overcoming any resistance and barriers to ensure that there is a clear organisational approach to injury management; and
• Ability to recognise when policies need updating and how to take necessary steps to update.

Day-to-day skills include:

• Active listening and the ability to deal with different groups of people, including difficult and distressed employees;
• The creation of trust and confidence in employees and other stakeholders;
• An ability to influence internal and external stakeholders, such as supervisors, payroll, HR staff, doctors, claims managers and rehabilitation providers;
• Conflict management of difficult cases, or arranging access to dispute-resolution services;
• Time management and the ability to multitask, eg, juggling case management and strategic management;
• File management and maintaining accurate, up-to-date case records (documents must withstand legal scrutiny);
• An ability to lead, to recognise the next steps that are needed and to provide direction for the team of people involved in RTW processes;
• Data collection, timely completion of forms and compliance with the relevant legislation; and
• An ability to use the relevant software, such as case management software, word processing and spreadsheets.

*Writer, Return To Work Matters.