‘Job Demands Description’ intended to support return-to-work process

Toronto — Aiming to help workers return to – and remain on – the job after an injury or illness, the Public Services Health and Safety Association has outlined a process for employers.

A Job Demands Description is “a structured process designed to identify the physical, cognitive and psychological demands of the essential duties of a job; it is the sum of a cognitive demands analysis and a physical demands analysis in one document.”

Employers can then match those demands with a worker’s current abilities, as determined by a health care provider. The goal is to “provide suitable work for the worker within their functional abilities.”

The JDD process includes:

• Interviews with workers and supervisors to assess essential job tasks and workflow.
• Shadowing workers to identify job demands during essential tasks.

Finally, job demands are assessed and documented in a peer-review report.

“A comprehensive JDD can provide an employer with a relatively clear picture of the physical and cognitive needs of a particular position as well as workplace factors that may give rise to stress in the workplace,” PSHSA says.