Is your workplace a small organisation where return to work issues crop up but once in a blue moon? Or is it a larger organisation with more claims than you can poke a stick at?

Either way – whether return to work coordination is something additional to your daily role in the workplace, or your sole responsibility – the job is a tricky one, and the right training will give you the skills and confidence to lead an ill or injured worker back to work successfully. 

What are the training options?

Training and development needs vary according to case load, organisation size and the other work responsibilities of the RTW coordinator.

It’s common sense that the larger the organisation the larger the number of claims, and hence the greater the need for highly trained return to work coordinators with a good ability to focus on system and strategic work. The more knowledge you have as a return to work coordinator, the greater your ability to have broad influence within your workplace.

To get the right skills a RTW coordinator needs training in two areas: 

• Strategic – the development of policies, relationships, and management structures that streamline return to work management; and
• Day-to-day operational activities – dealing with individual cases, issues, and conversations.

Don’t get bogged down in the operational (day-to-day) tasks that you lose sight of the bigger picture – it’s often where there’s the most room for improvement.

RTW Coordinators need to have skills developed are in:

• building relationships;
• engaging managers; and
• training supervisors.

To gain, or hone, these skills, options for training include:

• Basic RTW training. This usually involves a two-day course, run at a number of training or rehabilitation organisations. This training assumes no prior knowledge.
• Industry association training. Some industry associations run coordinator training, requiring attendance of, for example, four hours a week over a ten week course.
• University training. Undergraduate or postgraduate courses are run at selected universities, and result in recognised professional rehabilitation qualifications.
• Other health tertiary qualifications, such as occupational therapy or physiotherapy. Such qualifications are particularly relevant to larger organisations.

Other training options, to complement the above, include: 

• Advanced communication skills, including:
  • Active listening
  • Influencing senior management
  • Presentation skill development
  • Conflict resolution and mediation
• Spreadsheet and database management;
• Organisational management; and
• Software training.

While it might be easy to dismiss training – especially a short, two-day session – as less than essential to your role as RTW Coordinator, it’s worth remembering that RTW Coordination is a complex job.

Coordinators need to be able to:

• Balance the needs of individuals with the needs of the workplace;
• Deal with people in distress, as well as with busy supervisors who are juggling production matters; and
• Influence senior staff and external stakeholders, and oversee program and policy development.

(The extent to which these capabilities will be called upon depends largely on the size of the organisation, and the number of cases or claims.) 

Both during and after training, Coordinators should have or be developing:

• Knowledge of relevant compensation and privacy legislation;
• Understanding of organisational approaches to injury management;
• Capacity to develop effective relationships with supervisors, HR, health and safety, quality control, unions, senior management, external providers and workers;
• Ability to understand and review outcome results and case/claims data;
• Skills in consulting widely, taking on board the needs of various parties;
• Ability to effectively implement policy, overcoming any resistance and barriers to ensure that there is a clear organisational approach to injury management; and
• Ability to recognise when policies need updating and how to take necessary steps to update.

Day-to-day skills include: 

• Active listening, and the ability to deal with different groups of people, including difficult and distressed employees;
• The creation of trust and confidence in employees and other stakeholders;
• An ability to influence internal and external stakeholders, such as supervisors, payroll, HR staff, doctors, claims managers and rehabilitation providers;
• Conflict management of difficult cases, or arranging access to dispute resolution services;
• Time management and the ability to multi-task. For example the ability to juggle case management and strategic management;
• File management and maintaining accurate, up-to-date case records (documents must withstand legal scrutiny);
• An ability to lead, to recognise the next steps that are needed, and to provide direction for the team of people involved in return to work processes;
• Data collection, timely completion of forms and compliance with the relevant legislation; and
• An ability to use the relevant software, such as case management software, word processing and spreadsheets.

These are skills that require maintenance: regular training and retraining will help you do the best you can as Return To Work Coordinator.