If you’ve ever put a letter in a bottle and tossed it off a jetty into the ocean, hoping that someone, somewhere, sometime, will find it, open it, read it and be inspired or encouraged by what you’ve written, you have a bit of an idea of what it feels like to write for RTWMatters.

Each week, we hoick our articles out into the deep blue of the World Wide Web, dreaming of potential readers and hoping for the best. Unlike your average letter-in-a-bottle-throwers, we know that we have a growing readership, but we also know that our readers are busy people, unlikely to give us direct feedback unless we get something very right or very wrong.

At its best, however, writing is not a solitary act but a conversation between two parties: reader and writer. Pondering this fact in an editorial meeting some months ago, our general manager Cheryl Griffiths suggested that we conduct a brief survey of current and expired members, sweetening the deal by offering an I-pod for one randomly selected participant.

We wanted our readers, past and present, to tell us about:

• Their responsibilities in the workplace;
• What they struggle to deal with in their roles;
• The sections of our site that are most useful to them; and
• Their ideas for enriching the site further.

111 people from a range of industries and RTW-related positions participated in the survey.

The largest group of participants (29%) did not have a single role, but described themselves as time-poor “jugglers”. Other large groups were rehab workers (20%), RTWCs (16%), OHS employees (8%) and injury managers (7%).

15% of participants worked in the government sector, 13% in manufacturing and 11% in allied health. In addition to these larger groups, there was a spread of participants across diverse industries including retail, construction, hospitality, finance, education and agriculture.

Because we wanted to get a really accurate picture of the experiences of our readers, we began the survey began with two open-ended question: “What’s the biggest problem in your role that you don’t know how to deal with?” and “What are two to three other problems you regularly come up against that make you less effective in your role?”

Unsurprisingly, difficulties of communication with treating practitioners and the frustrations of dealing with workers who seem to lack the motivation to return to work are common problems. However, by far and away the most common and intransigent issue our readers face is to do with management issues internal to their organisation.

This came as a surprise to the RTWMatters team.

“There are more problems with the employer than I expected,” Cheryl said. “It’s given us a lot of food for thought in terms of developing content and tools.”

In the words of one of our readers, trying to change culture, improve morale, reduce injuries, lower premiums and improve RTW outcomes  without senior management buy-in is “a contradiction, and without it all will ultimately fail.” Unfortunately, this is the situation that many RTW professionals face.

Another difficulty is when management fail to understand what the role requires, for example office space to have private conversations with workers.

Supervisors and managers are often seen as lacking commitment to the RTW process, and employers fail to understand the psychosocial and physical risks of certain jobs and tasks.

Rigid organisational policies cause problems for many RTW professionals, as do “other parts of the business working in isolation and not including us in workplace issues.”

Those who work in small to medium enterprises often face a different kind of isolation: they have “no one to bounce ideas off or provide professional feedback.”

Whatever size the organisation, when management don’t see RTW as a priority, it makes sense that they will fail to resource it adequately. This leaves many RTW professionals feeling that they lack the time to do their job as well as they would like.

“Our readers don’t feel that they have enough time to devote to cases, and this prevents them from delving as deeply as they would like to,” Cheryl said. “They also struggle to prioritise various roles, and to avoid burnout given all the pressures.”

Following on from these kinds of organisational issues, the next most common problem is in interacting with treating practitioners. Difficulties include:

• Doctors who are perceived to be biased towards employees.
• Doctors who don’t support the RTW program, including by providing help with modified duties.
• Doctors who are focused on giving workers what they ask for, rather than what is actually good for them, for example a graduated return to work.
• Doctors who don’t return phone calls or fill out paperwork correctly.

Next up are problems around dealing with workers, such as:

• Workers who are unmotivated, or who seem to use “pain / unfit certificates as an excuse to be absent from work / rehab activities”.
• Workers who are unwilling to work with pain, or do not know how to safely work with pain.
• Union involvement.
• Psychosocial complications such as family issues.
• False and exaggerated claims.
• Workers who are too “gung ho” and won’t stick to modified duties.
• Managing conversations with distressed people.
• Workers who have taken on the role of a victim, and who blame everybody.
• Emotional difficulties of dealing with people who will never be able to return to work / pre-injury position.

Other themes that emerged from these open ended questions include:

• The difficulties of dealing with workers who have psychological conditions.
• Legislation, especially changes to legislation, and the workers’ comp system.
• Problems with insurer claims’ managers.
• Difficulties to do with distance, for example an inability to have one-on-one conversations with workers.

Overwhelmingly, both past and present subscribers are enthusiastic about the material presented on RTWMatters, and see our practical articles as the most useful element of the site.

As well as giving us a much-appreciated buzz, the glowing feedback we received made us wonder why some subscriptions do lapse. Again, the answer surprised us.

“I was unprepared for what a struggle it is for people to convince their employers to pay for a subscription to the site,” Dr Mary Wyatt, editor of RTWMatters said. “One of things that came out of the survey is the need for us to develop material to take to their employer, material that really spells out the advantages of the site.”

Over the coming months we’re going to focus on producing many more tools and templates—including more information about how to “sell” RTW as an organisational priority—that cover a whole range of RTW-relevant topics. A series of Webinars is also on the horizon.

On behalf of the entire RTWMatters team, thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural survey. We’re grateful for your openness and enthusiasm, and delighted to know that the messages we send out each week don’t end up lost in the cyber-ocean.