Performance-disabled employees are persons with restrictions on the work they can perform because of an irreversible disability or incurable disease, the existence of which has been certified by a medical practitioner. The majority of these persons are older employees with only partial disabilities. Their employment or reintegration is a problematic issue for many businesses, given that demographic development, longer working lives, increasing psychophysical stress and changes in the spectrum of diseases involved are producing a growing number of performance-disabled employees. Volkswagen AG has acknowledged this trend in its personnel structure by introducing at its Wolfsburg plant an innovative HR and health project, called Work2Work. The project aims to install performance-disabled employees in positions which properly accommodate their deficiencies and performance capacities, help to stabilize their state of health, give them scope for personality development, and maximize their value-adding effect. The HR and healthcare departments work in close co-operation in this area. The principle tasks of healthcare are
- medical and psychological diagnosis of
performance limits but also of employees’ physical and mental potential,
- the analysis, evaluation and conception of workplaces for the performance-disabled,
- the provision of healthcare activities for
performance-disabled employees,
- medical-psychological training for supervisors
of performance-disabled employees.
While medical diagnostics provide tried-andproven methods of determining physical performance limits in the performance-disabled, it is difficult to assess mental potential, most particularly with respect to the identification, handling and treatment of mental disorders in performance-disabled people. The proportion of mentally challenged people among the performance-disabled is estimated to be around 30 to 40 per cent. For this reason a diagnostic method is being developed to help company doctors identify mental disorders, and training to enable supervisors to recognize mental disorders in their staff members has been devised. A work and requirements analysis uses ergonomic, physiological and psychological criteria to evaluate, classify and design workplaces for performancedisabled employees. Healthcare activities for the performance-disabled are generally undertaken to coincide with times of sick leave and comprise an active element (e.g. physiotherapeutic exercises) and a theoretical one (e.g. stress management).
