Raising Awareness and Appreciation: Employee Perspectives on Disability Management in Swiss Companies

Abstract

In Western countries, an increasing number of companies has difficulties with recruiting and retaining employees, along with growing employer responsibilities in the workplace. Therefore, companies’ interest in disability management programs has increased. This article examines employee perspectives of disability management and how it is related to job satisfaction, physical and mental health, workplace morale and sickness absence. Employees from seven Swiss companies (N=482), from the private and public sector, participated in either an online and paper-and-pencil survey for this present study. The survey asked employees to report their views of how disability management is related to job satisfaction, mental health, physical health, workplace morale and absenteeism. The Swiss employees participating in the study knew about disability management and related programs, which are implemented in their company. They valued them as moderately helpful for a variety of factors related to workplace wellbeing, and regarded the programs generally as high quality and wanted them to continue, because they contribute to job satisfaction, mental health, physical health, workplace morale and reduced sickness absence. However, employees also saw more value in disability prevention (DP) and stay at work (SAW) programs than in return to work (RTW) programs. Male employees and those working for public organisations saw more benefit in disability management programs than female employees and those working in the private sector.

The Identification of Acquired Disabilities in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Countries: A Scoping Review of Impact on Employment Outcomes

“…From a policy standpoint, the onus is mostly placed on employers to ensure workplace practices are inclusive of those with acquired disabilities (Foster & Wass 2012;Geisen et al 2019;Richards & Sang 2019). This includes workplace adjustments and the duty of employers to facilitate changes (Foster & Wass 2012;Geisen et al 2019;Richards & Sang 2019).…”

“…From a policy standpoint, the onus is mostly placed on employers to ensure workplace practices are inclusive of those with acquired disabilities (Foster & Wass 2012;Geisen et al 2019;Richards & Sang 2019). This includes workplace adjustments and the duty of employers to facilitate changes (Foster & Wass 2012;Geisen et al 2019;Richards & Sang 2019). However, Foster and Wass (2012) and Richard and Sang (2019) find a discrepancy in the interpretation of what is a reasonable workplace adjustment and assert that the discrepancy results in employers justifying refusal to requests especially around invisible acquired disabilities and mental health.…”

“…For example, a large organization could hire a person with a disability only to meet a quota prescribed in the Equal Employment Opportunities legislation and therefore only consider the visible congenital disabilities. Some OECD countries, including Switzerland have begun to promote a healthy workforce with a focus on employment retention aimed at maintaining the workforce, facilitating the returnto-work process, and preventing the outflow from paid work to disability pensions (Geisen et al 2019). According to Geisen et al (2019), there is a positive return on investment when social policy and organizational practice support employees in jeopardy of losing employment due to an acquired disability to keep their current jobs.…”

“…Research has highlighted an increase in people who once held employment seeking disability pension or welfare services (Barnes 2012;Geisen et al 2019;Jones et al 2014;Pihlajamäki et al 2019;Soldatic et al 2017). Attempts have been made to curb the inflow of individuals claiming a disability pension, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom where a twotiered assessment is used to determine both the degree of restriction and the resultant capacity to work (Barnes 2012;Jones et al 2014;Soldatic et al 2017).…”

Mapping Organizational Culture Schemas Based on Correlational Class Analysis: A Tutorial

“…Thus, to exemplify such use of correlational classes, two regression models (see step 8 of the readme.pdf file) were run by assuming the employee appreciation and satisfaction dimension as a dependent variable. This variable is often used as a partially endogenous element in studies about culture and organizational climate (Geisen et al, 2019), which explains its selection. The other three dimensions of organizational value escalation -cooperative professionalism, meritocratic professionalism, hierarchical rigidity, and competition -were incorporated as predictors to demonstrate how the effect of each dimension can change in each class.…”