Best Practices - When it comes to Physically Demanding Jobs

Today, there is a growing concern about the aging workforce and job applicants who may have existing medical conditions at the time of hire. As a result, reducing the risk of injuring new hires has become a nationwide priority for industries. The cost of lost time and related medical expenses associated with musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) for American employers is significant. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), MSDs account for over one-third of occupational injuries and illnesses and present the largest job-related injury and illness issue in the United States. Ergonomic injuries are estimated to cost American employers over 20 billion dollars annually.

The field of ergonomics has garnered significant attention nationally in recent years. The primary concept in ergonomics is to ensure that the job fits the worker.

However, if an employer has implemented all reasonable ergonomic interventions in the workplace, minimized the essential physical demands of the job, and effectively eliminated ergonomic stressors to make the job as safe as possible, what can an employer do if a person seeking placement in a job has a disability or simply lacks the physical capacities (e.g. strength, endurance, flexibility, etc.) to perform the job safely and effectively? The obvious answer is to properly match the physical capabilities of an applicant to job-specific physical demands before job placement.

Early pre-employment testing was flawed due to inconsistency in testing methodology, subjective scoring, and the inability to correlate certain tests to the specific physical requirements of the job. Many physical abilities testing programs were designed and implemented with a wide variety of testing procedures and philosophies being developed. While early physical abilities testing programs were successful in reducing the incidence of injury in many settings, they also led to discrimination against potential workers due to subjective testing protocols that were not necessarily related to the actual physical demands of the job.

Best Practices

Since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was introduced in 1991, there has been a focus on assessing a person's ability to perform a job safely, regardless of any actual or perceived disability. This shift led to changes in medical testing, moving from general medical exams to job-specific physical capabilities testing to evaluate the risk of injury. To accurately match a worker's physical abilities to the demands of the job, medical testing started relying on content validity obtained from physical demands validations (PDVs) or Job Task Analyses (JTA).

There are different types of physical ability tests used today. To be legally valid, employers must ensure that the testing protocol fully complies with the EEOC and ADA by making sure there is no unfair discrimination in the design of the physical test. This is done by conducting a Job Task Analysis (JTA) for each job to identify the minimum physical demands needed to perform the job safely and effectively. These tests assess individuals' ability to perform only the essential physical requirements of a specific job before they are assigned to that job.

To assess whether an individual possesses the necessary strength, flexibility, and performance capabilities to carry out the basic job requirements, an employer can conduct physical capability testing for all employees in a particular job role. If the testing process uniformly evaluates all candidates using procedures that accurately represent the essential job physical strength and performance requirements, it can be deemed as both valid and non-discriminatory.

Using a properly designed post-offer, pre-placement test such as the DataFit Physical Capabilities Assessment, which is fully compliant with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has been proven to be an effective component in industries' loss control efforts. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) considers matching employees to the job properly as instrumental in preventing injuries.