ARC Physical Therapy+’s onsite services meet employers and their employees where they are: at their place of employment. Onsite services are the first line of defense in work injury prevention. When onsite in the company environment, physical therapists can clearly evaluate workers’ tasks, test workers’ ability to perform tasks and provide a higher level of support for injury rehabilitation.
Several years ago, Hillyard, a leading manufacturer and distributor of cleaning and hygiene solutions, based in St. Joseph, Missouri, decided to evaluate their applicant selection and hiring process.
Part of the evaluation was focused on validating essential functions of positions including the physical requirements of the job. They needed to make sure applicants clearly understood the skills needed and the physical demands of the position and could safely perform them.
“We believed doing a better job of validating a candidate’s fit for the position would improve our hiring decisions and have a positive impact on our workers’ compensation program,” Tim Talbot, OHST, CSP, Safety Risk Manager at Hillyard, explained.
After reviewing several programs, they decided ARC Physical Therapy+’s business model and onsite program was the best fit for their organization.
“They demonstrated how they could help us validate our needs, which should result in lower injury rates, reduced workers’ compensation costs, and improve our hiring decisions,” Tim shared.
As part of the onsite program, ARC Physical Therapy+ introduced the Post Offer Employment Testing (POET) program, which involves a thorough job analysis identifying the force, height, distance and frequency required of each job demand. This program involves completing a Functional Job Analysis for every position, which Tim believed was beneficial for Hillyard.
“ARC Physical Therapy+ made the analysis process very easy, which was a key factor in the program success,” Tim said. “We now obtain a baseline analysis on every new hire, which provides great information should an employee become injured. An injured employee is treated with a focus on their original baseline. Employees get the treatment they need to recover, and our risk exposure is limited.”
“The professionalism and follow through by Kristy Robinson (Physical Therapist Assistant/Certified Ergonomics Assessment Specialist) and Brian Stewart (CMO/Partner) and others allowed Hillyard to get the program installed very quickly,” Tim went on. “They have been a great business partner, who bring measurable results.”
ARC Physical Therapy+ helped Hillyard identify their needs and improve their hiring process.
They can now validate that each person hired can physically meet their job requirements. This allows Hillyard to protect their existing employees as well as protect the person being hired.
“Our injury rate has fallen each year since we’ve partnered with ARC Physical Therapy+,” Gregg Roberts, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Vice President/Human Resources, shared. “We’ve been able to continue to build a successful safety program due to the assistance they’ve provided. We believe the validation process has resulted in some individuals realizing they can’t meet our requirements, and this eliminates future problems and wasted time and energy at Hillyard.”
Beyond the Functional Job Analysis and Post Offer Employment Testing program, ARC Physical Therapy+ offers Hillyard their ARC First Response program. This program allows Hillyard to monitor early onset of symptoms and keep an ailment from becoming recordable on their OSHA Form 300. Getting the ARC Physical Therapy+ physical therapists involved early and assisting employees has helped immensely.
“I would recommend ARC Physical Therapy+’s onsite services because of the POET program and the incredible knowledge their team provides. Their organization’s emphasis on continuous improvement sets them apart from their competitors,” Gregg explained. “They treat our employees with the upmost professionalism. That’s crucial if we are to have a successful ongoing relationship. Hillyard’s employees have been very complimentary on the treatment and care they’ve received at ARC Physical Therapy+.”
Interested in learning more about our onsite services? Contact us at (913) 831-2721 to see how we can help your company save money on workers’ compensation and group health insurance costs.
