what is a reasonable accomodation?

What is reasonable accommodation? 
A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment that allows an employee with a temporary or permanent disability to perform the essential functions of their job, without causing an undue hardship on the business.  Reasonable accommodations include but are not limited to; adjustments to working environment, working hours of job itself, modifying work tools, and technological assistance devices.  All requests should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and practices should be applied consistently across similar situations.

Pro Pulse Tip: 

·        Review your business’s current activities. 

·        What kind of work do your employees perform? 

·        Do you have the essential duties and physical requirements of all positions documented clearly and objectively? 

·        Are they up to date? 

·        At a minimum, your job description and essential duties should be reviewed annually.

·        Added bonus?  This is also a great way to build partnership between managers and HR.

What is the interactive process?
The interactive process occurs when there is a belief that an employee requires an accommodation to perform his or her job.  Rarely does the employee notify HR and request accommodation- if only it were that simple.  The burden does fall on the manager to know their employee and have a trustful relationship to open dialog.   HR has a responsibility to properly educate the managers on current policies, procedures and practices related to ADA.   

Pulse Pro Tip: 

·        Establish a policy and procedures to conduct the interactive process.  Review with outside counsel, Pulse Strategies or a trusted member in the HR community to ensure your policies, procedures and practices align with federal, state and local laws and manage the risk of your business.

·        Clearly outline responsibilities of the manager and HR to ensure an unbiased, confidential review of the request or need.

·        Provide your employees with an avenue to speak openly and safely about potential accommodation needs- and social this again and again.

·        HR team- host a 90-minute workshop with your managers using tailored scenarios from your industry and practice navigating your process. 

·        Ensure you are capturing accommodation requests during the recruiting process.  Use your applicant tracking system to capture and ensure an interactive dialog takes place during the selection process.

How do I get the interactive process dialog started? 

Once you have determined that an interactive dialogue must take place:

·        Manager and HR should carefully analyze the essential functions and duties of the job.  Include physical requirements as well as skill requirements.

·        Set up meeting with employee to understand precisely the limitations posed by disability and how the limitations could be overcome by accommodation.  Request health care provider information, with detailed notes regarding limitations and during of time limitations are expected.

·        Spend 24-48 hours reviewing between Manager and HR to determine the accommodation required is reasonable. 

·        Manager and HR meet with employee to outline potential reasonable accommodations to be made.

·        Select and implement.

·        Document agreement from all parties and set date to revisit should the accommodation be temporary.

Pulse Pro Tip: The employer and employee must enter all discussions with positive intentions.  They have a duty to provide relevant information.  Rarely is accommodation clear and simple, or requested by the employee.  The burden falls on the employer (that’s right) to recognize the need for the accommodation.   Approach this conversation as an active listener, with the intention of doing what’s best for the employee.   

Do all interactive discussions lead to reasonable accommodation? 

No.  Sometimes, a disability cannot be accommodated without undue hardship.  Make no promises to an employee without carefully analyzing each case and referring back to your policies and procedures.  Seek outside counsel. 

Pulse Pro Tips:

Does FMLA and ADA coincide?  It can.  If you have an employee that is returning from FMLA and there is a potential need for accommodation, get ahead of it and start the interactive dialog between the manager, HR, and employee. 

Is it common for reasonable accommodation requests to coincide with performance issues?  Yes, it’s quite common.  The difference between a clean and messy instance is an established trust and regular discussion regarding the employee’s performance.