Successful return to work: the role of fairness and workplace‐based strategies

Abstract

PurposeConsistent with previous research, the purpose of this paper is to propose that the presence of workplace‐based return‐to‐work strategies would reduce the duration of work disability. Moving beyond existing research, the paper further seeks to propose that these strategies would also enhance mental health and affective commitment among injured workers. In addition, the paper aims to introduce interactional justice – injured workers' perceptions of the interpersonal and informational fairness of the person most responsible for their return‐to‐work process – to the return‐to‐work context, and to hypothesize that these factors would also contribute to the explanation of these outcomes.Design/methodology/approachWithin five weeks of their injury, telephone interviews were conducted with 166 workers from the province of Ontario, Canada, who had experienced musculoskeletal lost‐time workplace injuries.FindingsMultiple regression analyses indicate that certain workplace‐based strategies were associated with days on compensation, self‐reported days absent, and depressive symptoms, but not affective commitment. Further, as hypothesized, interactional justice accounted for additional variance explained in self‐reported days absent, depressive symptoms, and affective commitment. Interactional justice did not explain additional variance in days on compensation.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for employers engaged in return‐to‐work practices and researchers studying return to work. Both should address not only the workplace‐based strategies used, but also the way in which these strategies are implemented.Originality/valueThe paper replicates previous empirical work on return‐to‐work interventions and demonstrates the importance of the presence of workplace‐based strategies in explaining the duration of work disability.