Yesterday's Advisor explored tips for dealing with safety and disabilities. Today, we’ll give you some tips on periodic medical exams for safety-sensitive positions and an introduction to a new wellness system that might help.

Thanks once again to expert Lindsay E. Harris, senior counsel at Speer Associates/Workplace Counsel, an employment law and employee relations consulting firm in San Francisco.

Are Periodic Across-the-Board Medical Examinations Allowed?

What happens if you lack concrete, objective evidence of safety risks, and your safety concerns regarding particular individuals are based on speculation or intuition? If your company has safety-sensitive positions, you would likely be able to justify periodic across-the-board examinations as long as you apply them evenly to everyone in the safety-sensitive positions, Harris says.

According to EEOC, such periodic medical exams for public safety positions are permissible when they are "narrowly tailored to address specific job-related concerns and are shown to be consistent with business necessity."

Moreover, in certain industries (e.g., the railroad industry), such examinations are mandated by federal law or regulation. (Indeed, it is a defense to a charge of discrimination under the ADA that "a challenged action is required or necessitated by another federal law or regulation.")

It goes without saying, then, that an employer should possess a thorough understanding of any federal safety regulations that affect its operations.

Corporate wellness programs show great ROIs. And, as one expert noted, there's little downside—even small improvements make a difference. Check out BLR's comprehensive Workplace Wellness program—guidebook, newsletters, PowerPoint® presentations updated quarterly—at no cost or risk. Read more.

ADA Presents Hurdles—But You Can Get Information

To sum up, although the ADA presents some hurdles to obtaining information from employees about disabilities and medications that could pose dangers, there are at least three lawful ways for you to get this information:

  1. You may institute an across-the-board, post-offer medical exam for all job applicants in safety-sensitive positions.
  2. If you have sufficient objective evidence suggesting that a specific employee poses a direct threat, you may ask the individual disability-related questions or require a medical exam.
  3. If you have safety-sensitive positions, you may require periodic medical exams of all persons in those positions as long as the exams are narrowly tailored and consistent with business necessity.

Will Wellness Help?

Can a wellness program help to reduce safety concerns? Sure—they may provide a less adversarial way to deal with safety threats. For example, if your employees participate in individual health evaluations, they will identify and learn how to manage medical problems.

Wellness might seem like too big a project to take on, but consider the following:

4.  Wellness pays off. It's not an added expense; in fact, studies show ROIs upward of 300 percent for many programs. That makes it an easy sell to management.

5. There's a new turnkey “3-Dimension” tool to help you build your wellness program.

Well-structured and well-run wellness programs can show dramatic ROIs, but the key words are well-structured and well-run. Poorly designed programs just spin their wheels—no health benefit and no positive ROI either.
What are the keys to wellness success?

          —Careful planning and structure
          —Ongoing attention
          —Keeping it fresh

With this in mind, BLR's editors have prepared a new and unique three-part program that has something for everyone—the people who authorize the program, the people who run it, and the people who participate. BLR's all new Total Workplace Wellness Program includes these key elements:

Part 1—Wellness Guide.  This 373-page guide shows you how to set up your program—from convincing management to implementing a workable plan to maintaining its effectiveness over time. It includes a vast collection of ready-to-use forms, handouts, and checklists that both structure your program and provide the metrics to prove its effectiveness to management’s satisfaction.

Check out BLR’s comprehensive Total Workplace Wellness Program at no cost or risk. Get the details.

Part 2—Quarterly manager's newsletter. Clearly written, practical, up-to-the-minute info—the latest in wellness news, case studies of successful programs, and practical tips from the field on running an effective program.

Part 3—Interactive Employee PowerPoints.  Employees stay engaged with these interactive training aids. Each focuses on a key wellness topic such as Managing Stress, Healthy Aging, and many more.

PLUS, along with your quarterly newsletter, you also receive quarterly updates for both the guidebook and the PowerPoint training sessions—so there's no trouble keeping your program humming with fresh ideas and proven suggestions.

If you’d like to examine the Total Workplace Wellness Program on a no-cost, no-obligation basis for 30 days, we can arrange for you to do so.  Let us know and we’ll be happy to set it up.