Written by Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP, MyAbilities Chief Medical Officer
The Value of MyAbilities’ Digital Job Profiles for Employers
Job profiles, also known as job descriptions or physical demands analyses, are critically important for employers. Unfortunately, many companies do not have accurate and comprehensive job profiles, or none at all. They may be handwritten, paper-based, incomplete, outdated, and certainly not digitally actionable. They may not contain the full range of occupational demands: physical, cognitive, psychosocial, environmental, etc. All of this puts the employer at a major disadvantage, and even at risk.
First let’s discuss the benefits. Having a Digital Job Profile (DJP) of the type that MyAbilities offers, allows the employer to develop and continually update an easily retrievable and shareable job profile. MyAbilities has created a database of over 50,000 job titles, and these can be used as is, or customized to reflect the particular features of an employer’s jobs. These can be used for highly targeted recruitment purposes, defining the search criteria for candidates’ capabilities to meet the demands of a job. If post offer of employment testing is is performed, the DJP provides a job-specific protocol for testing candidates to objectively assess their abilities to perform the job. The DJP highlights body regions that are at risk of injury for each job, allowing employers to implement preventive ergonomic modifications that will reduce injuries and claims. Additionally, the DJP can be used to train new employees to properly and safely perform the job, and to periodically monitor whether the employee is indeed performing the job as it is defined.
In addition to the user-friendly graphic display of DJP data, MyAbilities is also able to incorporate videos of each job’s functions and tasks in order to create a visual record that all users of the platform can access. A video ( taken by smartphone or tablet at the worksite) provides a new dimension to better understand what a job entails, and, supplemented by our AI-enabled kinematic analysis, yields an enhanced DJP that is even superior to ergonomist-generated profiles.
All of the above features support an employer’s optimal human resource management practices in the absence of any occupational injury or illness. If and when injury occurs, the employer can allow its TPA or insurance carrier to immediately access the worker’s DJP from its customized job bank, allowing the organization to quickly initiate appropriate claim and medical interventions that promote timely return-to-work.
Employers also need to be aware of the risks of litigation and penalties that may arise from OSHA or EEOC (U.S.) oversight. A complete job bank with state-of-the-art DJPs ensures compliance with OSHA requirements. It can also prevent litigation related to potential allegations of workers’ being required to perform duties outside the scope of their documented job responsibilities. ADA compliance is increased when it can be documented that an injured worker is able to return to work when objectively capable of performing the essential demands of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations. Alternatively, DJPs help to identify alternative jobs that the worker may be able to perform after rehabilitation has ended.
In summary, MyAbilities is able to work with employers to quickly and cost-effectively facilitate the development of a proprietary digital job bank that achieves unique and permanent benefits for businesses of all sizes and types of industry.
