The Working Group Disability Management in 2022 focuses on working with employers who aim to support their staff facing the impacts of an accident or chronic disease and their return to work. It was agreed that EPR members will discuss the barriers, success factors and good practices for return-to-work programmes, job retention and reasonable accommodation. Another key aspect would be the exchange on tools to support employers with effectively rolling out and implementing disability management in their companies/organisations. One aim for this year in line with the EPR Work Programme 2022 is to elaborate a practice-oriented report with promising models and approaches of disability management, indicating their contribution to policies and regulatory frameworks.
The online meeting on 23 March served to have an in-depth exchange on the aims of the EPR Working Group Disability Management. We also orgnaised an exchange on the set of structured services EPR members offer to support employers with return-to-work activities in the context of a disability management approach.
In the meeting on 25 October (see agenda below), we aimed at bringing together good practice examples regarding service design, packages, and strategies used by EPR members to address and support employers in the context of disability management with a view to compiling a report. We also had a session to exchange and compile arguments, evidence and data EPR members already use to make the business case for Disability Management. And the participants are asked to come prepared with the inventory of services offered by EPR members to reply to employers’ needs to support staff facing the impact of accidents or chronic disease: prevention of sick absence, return-to-work programmes, to start of the exchanges and mutual learning activities.
Mathias Maucher, mmaucher@epr.eu