There are two kinds of action that will assist in the ironing out of wrinkles in your disability management system. The first is planned action and the second is off-the-cuff and ad-hoc. More below!

Action plans

When it comes to implementing disability management strategies, the devil is in the details. Detail-focused action plans help ensure that an organisation’s injury management vision becomes a reality.

An action plan can help:

• Set goals to work towards;
• Prioritise;
• Demonstrate that an organisation is serious about injury management; and
• Provide a plan that can be reviewed and evaluated.

An action plan should include:

• What the problem is;
• How the issue was assessed;
• What the organisation will do about the issue;
• How the steps to improve were identified;
• Key milestones and dates for them to be reached;
• A commitment to provide feedback to employees on progress; and
• A date for reviewing actual changes against the plan.

In order to promote timely and transparent implementation, action plans should always be specific about how and when changes to the system will be made, and who is responsible for making them.

The action plan should be shared with management and with employees and their representatives, and everyone should have details about dates for monitoring and review.

Monitoring and reviewing action plans

It is important to periodically check that agreed actions are being undertaken, for example that meetings are being held, or that there is evidence that certain activities have taken place.

How this is done depends upon the solutions that were developed and implemented. It is important to ask those involved whether they feel the solutions are having the desired effect. Discussing the program with a sample of those involved is sensible.

Another way to demonstrate the plan's effectiveness is to review data on employee injuries, days lost from work, and to measure progress against emerging trends or changes in this data.

The program's targets should be periodically reviewed. Targets that are met can be celebrated and success shared. When targets are not met a review of the system to identify gaps should be completed.

The timing of reviews will depend on how long it will take to implement each intervention and how long the focus group expects it will take to have any impact.

Kickstarting the system: Ad hoc actions

Small, ad hoc actions can let people know that their issue is important and being taken seriously.

Actions demonstrate commitment, and program implementation is more likely to be successful if people can see and understand the difference that the program will make to everyday situations.

An example: An employee cuts his finger and the cut is deep enough to sever the tendon. The supervisor takes the employee to the hospital, the company doctor organises rapid access to a plastic surgeon, and the manager calls the employee the next day to see how he is.

Small, impromptu gestures can make a mighty difference. Plans are important but so too is improvisation.