Eileen Drake is Vice President, Administration & Legal
Affairs for PCC Structurals, Inc. PCC Structurals, Inc. is a
subsidiary of Precision Castparts Corp., a worldwide
manufacturer of complex metal components and products for a wide
variety of aerospace and general industrial applications
headquartered in Portland, Oregon. A recent Affiliate of the
Oregon Business Leadership Network, Eileen shared some valuable
insights with us.
OBLN: Eileen, you recently attended the OBLN’s CEO Forum on
the business case. Were there any surprises for you?
EILEEN: Let me start with the obvious one – the level of the
unemployment rate among people with disabilities was a
staggering number. The other, pleasant surprise, was finding out
that there really is a fairly broad range of resources available
for employers; but there is also frustration with that. If you
are an individual employer how would you tap into those
resources? How would you even know that those resources exist to
begin with? How would you find an efficient way to tap into
those resources? Most of us aren’t staffed enough to be able to
track down four or five or six state or community resource
organizations.
OBLN: Is it important for the OBLN to be a forum for Oregon
businesses around issues of disability and the workplace?
EILEEN: It certainly should be a focal point for the
discussion around “How do we streamline and coordinate access to
applicants with disabilities and access to resources for
employers to work more effectively with their current employees
with disabilities?” There are two aspects to this issue. You
have the potential worker with a disability and you have the
current worker who has suddenly acquired a disability or who has
a disability that has worsened. What do you need to do and how
do you identify resources to help you address retaining that
worker and making it possible for that employee to continue with
your business? I would say that the OBLN has the potential to be
a focal point for information and resource contacts (for
business).
OBLN: Eileen, does your company have any particular practice
that works well for you around recruiting or retaining employees
with disabilities?
EILEEN: One of the things that we have been concentrating on
for the last three years has been updating and revising our
return to work program – everything from what we call it to how
it is structured and who participates in it.
It was initially called the “Light Duty Program” which isn’t
an attractive title for either the employees participating in
the program or the supervisors who are being asked to cooperate
and provide work through the program. So we have changed that to
a “Return to Work Program” to emphasize what it is that we are
really trying to do – which is to serve the needs of employees
who have a temporary need for modified work or modified duties.
It could be that they perform their regular job with
modification to it – or it could be that they need to step out
of their regular position and perform other work in order to
match their physical restrictions.
The Return to Work Program started out in a Workers
Compensation context; but we have broadened it to include
employees on short-term disability benefits, long-term
disability benefits and even employees who need modified work
due to pregnancy. It is designed to bring the employee back into
a regular employment role within 60 – 180 days. The focus is how
to stage someone’s return to regular employment in the
workplace.
If an employee needs a longer term accommodation because of a
disability, we will treat that as a longer term accommodation.
It won’t be covered under the Return to Work Program; but we
will address it the same as we would with any employee who needs
an accommodation or a work modification.
The Return to Work program is working quite well. We have
seen a drop in our Workers Compensation costs as this program
has been phased in. We have seen broader acceptance by
participating employees and supervisors in the program. It is
still a work in progress; but we like the progress that we are
making. There is a direct impact on the bottom line through
reduced time loss claims costs. I think it helps our healthcare
benefit costs as well. The research data shows that the faster
you can get somebody back to work, the faster they return to
good health and they don’t need the same amount of medical
services that they would otherwise. Hopefully employees look at
the program and feel that we still value them as employees – so
they are more motivated to return to work and return to
productivity.
OBLN: Do you think that the OBLN can play an important role
in the Oregon Business Plan?
EILEEN: The availability of people with disabilities as a
workforce should definitely be included in the Oregon Business
Plan. The projected worker shortages in the future are huge,
huge numbers. Employers can’t afford to ignore potential
workforce resources. If, in Oregon, we have a large percentage
of unemployed people who have disabilities, it is in our
economic interest to look for cost-effective ways to create
employment opportunities for them. It is in our economic
interest as a society and, as employers, it is to our advantage
to identify as broad a possible range of workforce resources as
we can.
OBLN: Eileen do you have any other comments or concerns that
you would like to alert us to?
EILEEN: I’m not sure that we all have a common understanding
of the issues, the needs and the resources with respect to
employing people with disabilities. I think there is a huge
educational challenge ahead for organizations like the OBLN.
Also, the word “accommodation” has been overused in a way
that makes it sound like an expense to employers. Organizations
like the OBLN need to do a better job to make the “business
case” for accommodation - as an affordable tool for prospective
employment of persons with disabilities. There needs to be more
discussion and more thinking about how to communicate that to
potential employers.
