Return-to-Work

In today's environment so many employers are doing more with less, and struggling to stay competitive. This is one reason why keeping people at work in the first place and bringing employees who have experienced a disability back to work as soon as they are able is more important than ever.

Our beliefs about the value in early return-to-work are:

• Work is therapeutic and speeds the healing and recovery process
• Any absence bears a cost to the employer - when an employee is out on disability you may be paying for them anyway, and there is a cost associated with lost productivity
• Keeping people at work improves a department's morale
• Healing occurs over time, and there should be progressive, incremental improvement in the employee's condition and ability to perform job duties
• Modified and transitional work heightens expectations of hardiness and performance over time, commensurate with the employee's functional capacity

This section will give you tips for returning your employee to work with or without restrictions, ideas for developing modified and transitional work, and what to do if your employee calls out during the return-to-work process.

At CIGNA we strive to assist employers to successfully return employees with disabilities to productivity as soon as their capabilities allow. Toward that end we have developed tools and resources for employers who need assistance creating their internal return-to-work program.

CIGNA's Employer's Guide to Creating a Successful Return-to-Work Program and this toolkit give you free information on returning employees to work following a disability and instructions on developing a return-to-work program.

If you need more hands-on guidance to develop your internal return-to-work program ask your Account Manager about CIGNA's Return-to-Work Program Development Consulting Service.

Take this quick and easy survey and give it to your Account Manager to help us assess your readiness to develop your return-to-work program.