Why Should Companies do Pre-Employments?

Pre-employments are comprehensive health assessments that are used to discern if a potential employee meets the occupational health and safety requirements of a specific role. Such assessments have elements of a general health check and other components to ensure employees can meet role requirements from a Workplace Health and Safety perspective.

What is assessed in Physical Pre-Employments?

• Candidates current and previous medical history are obtained. This is not limited to information related to underlying health conditions, disabilities, injuries and treatments obtained.
• Drug and Alcohol testing: We screen for illicit substances and alcohol use. This is crucial in roles where potential employees are going to work with or near heavy machinery or with critical equipment.
• Respiratory health (Spirometry): This is used to get an insight into the candidate’s overall lung function and helps us to identify any underlying pulmonary diseases such as asthma and COPD.
• Audiometry testing: This helps us assess a candidates’ hearing capability especially in environments where adequate hearing is required to maintain safety.
• Role specific functional testing: Here musculoskeletal tests are used to determine if potential candidates can meet the physical requirements of a role.
• Cardiovascular testing: This helps us assess a candidate’s cardiovascular health especially for roles in which a degree of physical fitness is required.

Why should companies do Pre-Employments?

• Management of Workplace Risk: Pre-employment health assessments help manage workplace risk by ensuring employees can meet the functional requirements of a role as well as establish any variations which need to be made for an employee while carrying out their duties.
• Increase in morale and employer loyalty: An employer investing in health and safety screening demonstrates a duty of care outside the confines of the workplace promoting a workplace culture built on due diligence, respect and empathy. Moreover, engagement in such screening practices can highlight concerns that future candidates may not be aware of providing them an opportunity to obtain health assistance as needed.
• Allow for employers to meet their obligations under Occupational Health and Safety legislation. Workplaces have obligations under Work-place Health and Safety laws and a duty of care to their prospective employees and this may be a legal requirement in certain industries prior to commencing employment.
• Increase in productivity: Employees who are fit for their roles both mentally and physically are more efficiently able to meet organisational aspirations.
• Reduce costs associated with workplace injuries, claims, high employee turnovers while minimising employee downtime.
• Minimise risk factors associated with absenteeism due to illness and injury.

Pre-employment health assessments allow for employers to make informed decisions about a potential candidates’ ability to meet job-specific tasks safely as well as outline any variations which may need to be implemented. This serves as a strategy for risk management and sustainable injury prevention for employers resulting in better outcomes.

How We Can Help

At Recovery Partners, our team is dedicated to providing accurate pre-employment assessments for a range of industries. Our qualified assessors can help you efficiently and effectively set up and review your pre-employment process. 

For additional information about what is assessed in our Physical Pre-Employment Health Assessments, download our free sample report.