The Benefits of Vocational Evaluation and Vocational Testing

‍Vocational testing is used in the workplace for a variety of reasons. Commonly, vocational assessments are used to determine a worker’s skillset and how best to place or train the worker. They are also used to evaluate injured workers and decide if they may benefit from retraining or new job placement to work around an injury.

Read on to learn more about the benefits of using vocational evaluations in the workplace.

Vocational Evaluations Provide Data About an Employee’s Abilities

One important reason to perform a vocational evaluation or vocational testing is to provide data about a worker’s abilities. They are also useful for planning for future workplace training and accommodating employees with special needs.

It can give you a new perspective on worker abilities. It can also help identify areas in which employees could use some help for future success at work.

Vocational Evaluations Help Employers Re-evaluate Employee Abilities

Another reason to perform a vocational evaluation or assessment is to help re-evaluate what people already know. It is important to re-evaluate skills and abilities. This is so that your employees don’t become too relaxed in improving their skill sets.

It can also help ensure that your employees are on track for future goals and paths.

Vocational Assessments Help Identify an Employee’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Identifying your employee’s strengths and weaknesses is also important. Many workplaces conduct vocational assessments or vocational evaluations during several phases of work production.

You will likely have a good idea of your employee’s strengths and weaknesses based on your knowledge and observations. But having data can help you feel more confident in your decisions.

Whether you are evaluating your employee’s interests or skills, you can use the results to guide your future decisions.

You can use the information to customize the work environment. This is so it addresses your employee’s strengths and weaknesses.

Vocational Assessments for Injured Employees

A vocational assessment is also useful to evaluate whether a worker is fit to return to work after an injury.  In a case of personal injury, assessments screen for physical abilities and limitations. After a long-term disability, employees can also undergo a vocational assessment.  This will aid in guiding their return.

Insight into workers’ compensation is an essential function of vocational assessments. The results will offer a clear, forthright view of the extent of injuries, potential recovery time, and limitations and outlook on job performance.

Combining Scores from Different Assessments Improves Understanding of Learning Needs

You may read about the benefits of vocational testing, but you may not be aware that it’s used to combine scores from different assessments.

A common way that vocational testing is used is to combine scores from several assessments to create one composite score.

Vocational testing can also be used to create a portfolio of your employee’s work.

Learn More About Vocational Evaluations and Vocational Testing with Solutions Northwest Inc.

Vocational testing is a common part of workplace testing for employees. It can help you gain a better understanding of your employee’s abilities and identify areas for growth.

Vocational testing can be used to for workplace injury, worker’s compensation claims, or to signify what would be the best placement for an employee. It is important to remember that vocational testing can also be used to create a composite score. This can help improve understanding of learning needs.

If you’re ready to take the next step or learn more about vocational testing, contact Solutions Northwest Inc.

Our vocational experts are involved in personal injury, workers’ compensation, family law and can provide vocational expert witness testimony.

Contact us today to make an appointment.

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4 Tips for Effective Disability Leave Management

Lost productivity because of employee absence costs US business $226 billion a year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that to be $1,685 per employee!

As a business owner, human resources manager, or professional manager – you should be able to track how many of the workplace absences taken are health-related or a symptom of poor job performance.

Are your absence policies compliant with federal regulations? If not, you risk fines or employee lawsuits. Investing in your disability leave management will reduce risk and benefit your employees.

Read on for practical disability leave management strategies your workplace can introduce today.

1. Define Your Absence Policies

Your absence policies define your accruals process and leave types. They state whether balances carry over and how and when to apply for leave.

Every workplace should provide communication and education around your absence policies to both employees and managers. This helps employees understand the different types and application steps. Especially for disability leaves.

Managers will learn what to expect during a disability absence. This allows them to plan their team’s workload and stay within the rules.

Provide this information during onboarding and throughout an employee’s employment. Keep your policy manual up to date with any regulation changes.

2. Keep Accurate Records

Federal rules apply when it comes to ensuring accurate records for time worked. For paid leave, like sick or disability leave, these rules are mandated at the state level.

Accurate records benefit the leave process. Managers can plan work schedules. Human Resources can determine disability leave eligibility. Employees know how much leave they have accrued.

Reporting can also identify trends and help with budgeting financial leave liabilities.

Tracking software helps with accuracy and ease of use. It can calculate accruals and disability benefits, and track workplace incidents and workplace accidents.

3. Train Managers in Disability Leave Management

Training supervisors on disability leave will avoid costly employee claims. As the company’s leave policy is updated, so should the training.

Knowing when to direct their employees to Human Resources is an important part of the manager training. A recent Morneau Shepell survey found employees returned to work faster when they talked directly with their Human Resources department, rather than their supervisor.

Consider hiring a vocational consultant to help setup these policies.

4. Provide Preventative Measures

A workplace free from physical injury or repetitive strains will prevent some absences. Giving employees access to information that can help them learn to be more healthy will also help to reduce the need for a long-term absence. For example, ways to quit smoking or eat more healthy foods.

When you combine a wellness program with a return-to-work program, you can reduce employee absences and have them return to work faster. Return-to-work plans may involve lighter duties or reasonable accommodations to meet the employee’s needs.

Furthermore, employers should perform ergonomics assessments to ensure that employees are working in a safe environment. Ergonomics Assessments can help prevent repetitive injury by providing workers with comfortable workstations and other preventative tools.

Help Your Employees Return to Work Sooner

Effective disability leave management involves four parts:

• A defined absence policy
• An accurate tracking system
• Training for employees and managers
• A proactive approach to work safety and employee health

We understand that setting up effective disability leave management may be overwhelming. For this reason, most business will hire a vocational consultant to manage the process for them, so they can focus on running their business.

We would be honored if you considered contacting the vocational experts Solutions Northwest Inc. to help you get your employees back to work and provide advice to reduce absences. Contact us today to chat with our Vocational Experts to see what we can do for you!

At Solutions Northwest Inc., our vocational experts are involved in  ADA Accommodations , personal injury, workers’ compensation, and family law.

Contact us today to make an appointment.

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How a Vocational Expert Can Help HR and Risk Managers

In 2020, over 2.7 million workplace injuries were reported by private businesses. So how can these types of injuries be avoided in your business?

Human Resources and Risk Managers do a lot to ensure their company stays safe. They work hard to find potential causes of accidents or losses. They try to implement preventative measures. And yet, despite these managers’ best efforts, employees still become injured on the job.

Furthermore, these employees usually file a claim for disability benefits while they recover from their injuries. 

As a business owner, human resources manager, or risk manager – it becomes your job to minimize the costs to your company and the damage it could sustain, but where to start? That’s where a Vocational Expert comes into the picture.

Vocational experts are professionals qualified by the SSA to determine if a person is legitimately disabled. In doing so, they can work with risk managers to reach a settlement that helps the company and the claimant. Read on to discover how this works in the guide below!

What a Vocational Expert Does

A vocational expert is not an attorney on behalf of the SSA. Instead, they serve as expert legal witnesses that can corroborate if a claimant is legitimately incapable of doing their job due to injuries. They can also help this person find new work if they have become permanently disabled. 

These vocational experts usually have specific training that makes them “experts.” For example, most vocational legal experts have extensive knowledge and experience with the current labor market conditions of an industry. Similarly, they understand how the SSA determines if a claimant is disabled. 

Most importantly, these vocational experts have experience with the vocational reference sources that the SSA recognizes. This way, they can issue vocational testing that complies with the SSA’s standards. 

Vocational Evaluation

One of the most critical functions a vocational expert has is conducting vocational evaluations. These evaluations are processes that vocational experts use to determine whether a claimant can perform or pursue a job. 

A forensic vocational evaluation considers many factors. Firstly, a vocational expert will examine current industry conditions to determine what a job requires of its workers. 

This information can be of vital use to human resources and risk managers. Vocational experts can provide risk managers with extensive information about the conditions of their industry and what accidents ensue. 

From there, risk managers can form more careful preventative measures to ensure fewer employees become injured. The expert can also help risk management prove whether a worker needs disability benefits. We’ll discuss this more in the last section.

Expert Vocational Testimony

Finally, vocational experts provide their expert opinion about a claimant’s case in court. Usually, the claimant’s attorney will ask the expert hypothetical questions about the situation.

For example, they may ask, “If somebody of the same age and medical history as my client experienced this, what would you suggest?” The vocational legal expert then provides their answer. 

Once again, this can help risk managers. This legal-expert witness can inform a company how to treat the claimant and how much time they may need to recover. 

Get Help From a Vocational Expert

A vocational expert can help human resources and risk management clarify many questions. All you have to do is find the best expert for your case.

We invite you to consider contacting the experts at Solutions Northwest Inc., we can help you find a vocational expert or give you general vocational consulting. Our vocational experts are involved in personal injury, workers’ compensation, and family law.

If you need our guidance, our legal experts are ready to guide you through the process.

Contact us today to make an appointment!

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Business 101: Why Insurers Use Vocational Experts

Is your company facing a workers’ compensation or disability claim? If so, a vocational expert can help you reach a reasonable settlement with the employee making a claim.

Insurers often hire vocational experts to assist with conducting a vocational assessment and understanding all the case facts. So, it’s a good idea for your business to understand why.

Keep reading to learn more about working with a vocational expert.

What Do Vocational Experts Do?

Vocational experts give an independent assessment of whether someone’s physical condition prohibits them from earning a living. They analyze whether injured workers suffered a partial or total disability and how this affects their future employment potential.

To do this, first, they need to conduct a vocational assessment. This assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of an individual’s work profile. It includes:

• Background
• Education
• Skills
• Training
• Occupational requirements
• Interests
• Work styles
• Personality

The vocational assessment will also include an overview of employee disabilities or health conditions and cognitive abilities.

After the vocational assessment is complete, the vocational expert will need to examine objective evidence in the case provided by:

• Physicians
• Insurance companies
• Insurance employers
• Medical records

This will help the vocational expert conclude a fair way to settle the workers’ compensation or disability claim.

Not just anyone can be a vocational expert. They need substantial credentials to back up their opinions in court, so you will likely need to hire a vocational expert outside of your in-house staff if you don’t already retain one.

The Importance of a Vocational Expert Testimony

Judges, juries, and insurance companies hold vocational expert opinions in high regard. So when their testimony goes to court, it’s a substantial piece of evidence, whether for or against your business.

Insurance companies hire vocational experts to substantiate the claims made by the employer. Insurers don’t want to pay out more money and benefits than they need to in a lawsuit.

This is good for your business. It could lessen your responsibility for the matter at hand.

However, an employee can also hire a vocational expert of their own. Since disputes run through the court system, injured employees may try everything to substantiate their own claims.

Should an employee hire their own vocational expert, it’s even more important your business and insurer have one too.

The experts will each testify in the case. If your employee has a vocational expert and your business doesn’t, the court may find you more liable to the employee’s claims.

When each party has an expert on its side, they will battle out in court before agreeing to a settlement.

Your business’s vocational expert will explain why the worker can return to work, even if in a limited capacity. The employee’s vocational expert will explain why the worker is entitled to worker compensation or disability benefits.

They will use a vocational assessment and evidence from the incident to determine the case’s outcome.

Protect Your Business and Hire a Vocational Expert Today

If your business is facing a disability or workers’ compensation claim, make sure to have a vocational expert on your side.

To speak with our vocational experts, contact us at Solutions Northwest, Inc. Our experts are knowledgeable about ADA accommodation issues, disability and injury management, and workers’ compensation. We are happy to assist you!

Subscribe to our blog for more work related tips from Solutions Northwest, Inc., experts available in: Seattle, WA, Tacoma, WA, Olympia, WA, Vancouver, WA, Kent, WA Renton, WA, Beaverton, WA.

Contact the Vocational Consultants at Solutions Northwest Inc. Below: