Pre & Post Offer Employment Testing

If an applicant is hired and through the course of his employment suffers any type of injury, the post-offer information is used to compare the employee's current status with his/her initial status. This alleviates speculation regarding pre-existing conditions and comparisons to other persons of his age and weight. Furthermore, since consistency of pre- and post-injury is easily monitored, the ability to detect faking an injury and reduce workers' compensation liability/expense is greatly enhanced. This has proven beneficial in reducing the dollar amount of court settlements to what is truly warranted as a deficit based on the injury that the individual suffered.

DISCLOSURE REGARDING EEOC and ADA REQUIREMENTS

Post-offer testing may be used to exclude employees not capable of performing job tasks as long as the test is not discriminatory, is job specific, and is properly validated. WorkSTEPS testing does include a medical history to ensure safety and proper medical knowledge of the applicant or employee prior to and during testing. In order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this information will not be used to determine job capability.

Post-offer/post employment testing can be very brief or extremely comprehensive, and charges are therefore commensurate with the amount of information accumulated. The comprehensive WorkSTEPS test includes objective measurements, musculoskeletal examination and computerized testing. WorkSTEPS is able to offer this test at a significantly reduced rate because of the unique packaging of the test, the volume of tests performed, and the sophistication of the software associated with the database. The cost to implement such a program is negated with the prevention of one carpal tunnel injury.

DUAL EFFORT

WorkSTEPS is proud to play such a vital role in the simultaneous well being of the healthcare and industrial communities. Several companies have literally stayed in business by implementing our injury prevention programs and not one company has experienced unsatisfactory results. With the employer and the healthcare provider working together to control costs, success is inevitable.

In addition to post-offer testings, companies who have saved the most dollars in preventive care programs have utilized post-employment/fit for duty tests. This service allows objective data to be collected to:

1. Determine an employee's ability to continue to perform his job tasks safely.
2. Identify cumulative trauma syndromes or disease processes which increase in incidence with aging.
3. Establishes baseline data to qualify legitimate injuries and disqualify game players post-injury.

Two recent incidences supporting the effectiveness of post-employment/fit for duty testing involved long term employees who had deteriorated in their ability to perform routine job tasks. Both tests revealed early stage neurological symptoms that were diagnosed after WorkSTEPS recommendation for further studies. Should those individuals have been injured while working, the company involved would have been liable for that person's disability for the duration of the disease process. In addition, job specific testing reveals that many employees actually work with discomfort while performing job tasks in a dangerous manner. Such testing allows instruction in proper body mechanics, lifting techniques, and simple exercises that can be done on the job to prevent degenerative problems. Post-employment/fit for duty testing allows the employer to work with long term employees to insure their safety at the work site while considering the effects of the aging process.