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Informed Hiring
- Quantitative job descriptions
- Quality pre-placement physical and drug testing
- Work Skills assessment for physically demanding jobs
- Impact on 15:8 legislation
The primary goal of the Informed Hiring Program is to provide your facility defensible information on an applicant’s ability to perform the job based on objective data rather than subject reports. The Work Skills Assessment will be designed from an on-site, in the field and/or service center, Job Task Analysis to quantify the essential job demands.
As a condition of employment, all Applicants in the selected work group will complete a Post Offer / Pre Employment Work Skills Assessment that has been designed in accordance with Americans with Disabilities Act. The results of the work skills assessment will be used by the employer to determine if the applicant meets the essential functions of the job and make an informed hiring decision.
Phase I - Job Task Analyses
After reviewing the provided list of job titles/work groups at your facility and the evaluators’ experience with this industry, the targeted work groups/job titles to be included in the Informed Hiring Program will be determined. If requested, we would be able to narrow down the targeted jobs by meeting with human resources and reviewing your Worker’s Compensation loss runs. Phase I would be to perform the job task analyses to quantify the jobs demands for selected work groups/job titles.
Using the data collected on the job task analyses; we will provide your facility functional job descriptions to reflect the functional, physical demands of the aforementioned job titles. The final draft of the Functional Job Description will be presented to a facility representative for signature indicating agreement of its accuracy.
Post Offer/Pre Hire Work Skills Assessment
A job specific, ADA defensible assessment will be designed based on the data gathered during the onsite job task analyses. Based on the review of the current job descriptions, it is recommended that a specific Work Skills Assessment (WSA) be designed for the aforementioned targeted job titles/work groups.
A job specific Work Skills Assessment is a functional screen that includes safe material, such as lifting and pulling goods and non-material handling (such as squatting to perform low-level work to lift goods under a rack) test activities and an aerobic capacity test. Other tests as required to capture the demands of the job will be used to ensure that the Work Skills Assessment is thorough and defensible. The applicant’s heart rate, blood pressure, and safe work habits are monitored during the test to ensure safety. The results of the assessment battery will be used by the employer to determine is the applicant meets the essential job demands for the position and make an informed hiring decision. A written testing protocol will be followed to insure test validity and reliability. Your facility will be provided the opportunity to validate the WSA by actually having employees take the WSA.
Your facility will be encouraged to send one experienced employee from each work group to take the Work Skills Assessment and give feedback on the test design. Once the test validation process is completed, a facility representative will be requested to sign a Work Skills Assessment validation form. By signing the Work Skills Assessment Validation form, the employer is confirming the assessment would be a valid tool to evaluate an applicant’s ability to meet the essential job demands.
Phase II - Work Skills and RTW Assessment Service Coordination
In collaboration with your facility, BHL will:
- Select a vendor in the community to perform the Work Skills Assessment.
- Train the WSA Evaluators to insure your facility’s WSA is administered in accordance with the written protocol
- Perform quarterly, at a minimum, review of WSA results and job descriptions will be performed by BHL and your facility. BHL would request to be notified of any changes needed to ensure accuracy of the Work Skills Assessment over time.
Phase III - Testing of Applicants and Employees Returning to Work
- Pre-Hire/Post-offer work skills assessment
- Base-line musculoskeletal screen included at no additional cost
- Return-to-work functional assessments
Benefits of an Informed Hiring Program
- Discoverable and Defensible Pre-Hire/Post Conditional Offer Testing
- Hiring decisions based on objective test results rather than applicant’s subjective report
- Improved retention
- Reduction in Workers’ Compensation cost
BHL Risk Management Consultant
Cindy has been a practicing, licensed therapist for 30 years with a specialty in industrial rehabilitation. Cindy provides onsite services and disability prevention locally and nation-wide. Her core, relevant education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from the State University of New York and Buffalo and relevant continuing education.
Services include but are not limited to:
- Design of Informed Hiring Programs
- Design Injury Reporting Systems
- Develop Transitional Duty Programs
- Injury Prevention/Safety Trainings Ergonomics Program Development
- Design and supervision of Peer Mentoring programs
- Safe Patient/Resident Handling & Movement Initiatives
- Mentoring/Training of Staff