Easing the Job Change for People with Injuries

I have recently delivered an interactive webinar to a group of practitioners. These practitioners help people who have been injured on the job to get off of disability insurance and back to work. To ensure we apply the lessons directly to their realities, they sent me a couple of typical scenarios:

• 56-year-old, right-handed Carpenter who has a right shoulder injury
• 49-year-old Plumber who cannot lift more than 10 pounds, cannot sit for more than 20 minutes, and has a 15-minute driving restriction 

One of the most common mistakes I see made by job seekers in scenarios like these (and those who help them) is the tendency to change everything, and to buy into the idea that the individual must pursue a new position in a new industry. For the clients in the scenarios above, this would mean leaving the construction industry. However, this makes their transition back to work longer and harder.

Here are some strategies to make the job transition easier and faster, for these clients and others. 

Two Key Dynamics

When making any job change, there are two key dynamics to consider– the what and the where of a job. Keeping it simple, jobs are essentially defined by what the person does (the skills they use and tasks they complete, e.g., serving customers vs. driving vehicles vs. teaching people) and where they do it (the field/industry, e.g., medical vs. construction vs. entertainment).

Of course, you can add in the client’s type, values, and more, but using just these two ingredients, we get jobs as distinct as: 

• Trainers of Pharmaceutical Sales Reps, Professors of Math, Acting Coaches for Children, and Workshop Facilitators for Welfare-to-Work Clients… who all use the same what (teaching skills) in a different where (distinct environments with distinct learners, goals, and subject matter). 
• Surgical Technicians, Cooks, Cashiers, Records Clerks, and Emergency Vehicle Operators in a hospital… who all use a distinct what (their specific technical skills) in the same where (the same industry, company, even building). 

Three Ways to Change Jobs

Using these two ingredients, there are several approaches to changing jobs.

Easiest Way to Change Jobs:

Changing jobs is generally easiest when the seeker is maintaining both the what and where of their current/last job– for example, moving from B2B Account Manager at Telecommunications Company A to the same job in Telecommunications Company B. This is easiest because the candidate carries with them both the skills and the industry knowledge/experience to do the new job.

They have the what and where and simply need to learn the new company, team, customers, etc. Often, people do not need our help to make these job changes.

Hardest Way to Change Jobs:

Changing jobs is generally most difficult and lengthy when the seeker is leaving behind both the what and where of their current/last job– for example, moving from B2B Account Manager in Telecommunications to Sales Trainer in Pharmaceuticals. This is challenging because they must prove they possess both the skills and the industry knowledge/experience to do the new job.

They have neither the what nor the where. These transitions often require intense re-training and support to break into the new industry. 

The Easier Way to Change Jobs:

Changing jobs is easier when the seeker is maintaining either the what or the where of their current/last job– for example, moving from B2B Account Manager in Telecommunications either to B2B Account Manager in Pharmaceuticals (using their proven skills as they prove they know or can learn a new industry) or to Sales Trainer in Telecommunications (using new skills in a known industry).

Which of the two should be maintained (the what or the where), depends on the unique job dynamics and the individual.

When a person wants to change both the what and where, i.e., make the hardest transition, it often makes sense to use the easier approach in two phases by first changing one, then the other.

For example, moving from B2B Account Manager in Telecommunications to Sales Trainer in Telecommunications, then to Sales Trainer in Pharmaceuticals, or moving from B2B Account Manager in Telecommunications to B2B Account Manager in Pharmaceuticals, then to Sales Trainer in Pharmaceuticals.

This may get them to their ultimate goal quicker than retraining their skills and rebuilding their industry network/knowledge prior to making the move (or trying to convince an employer they can retrain and rebuild both once hired!).

Making It Work

When helping someone make a job change, if they do not plan to keep their what and where, determine which they will maintain and which they will leave behind, then proceed accordingly.

Back to our Carpenter and Plumber.

Clearly neither of these people can maintain their what. Because they can no longer use their primary job skills (carpentry and plumbing, respectively), they must pursue a new what. However, they do not need to leave the construction industry. Depending on the skills they possess or can learn, they can keep their where. Perhaps they can 

• sell, 
• train, 
• serve customers, 
• do office work, 
• estimate, 
• inspect, 
• manage, 
• drive, 
• maneuver vehicles, 
• prospect, 
• or something else in the construction industry. 

This gets them back to work (or into training then back to work) sooner rather than later.

My company happens to rent office space in the headquarters of a commercial construction firm (I apologize in advance if when you call you hear some salty language through the walls. They are from New York, no less!). Most of the all-male team can swing a hammer, and many are Carpenters and Plumbers in their own right, but that is not their job.

Once or twice a week, the labor teams come in to get instructions (and paychecks), but the workers I interact with daily are office staff, project managers, sales people, estimators, bookkeepers and customer service reps, along with the occasional site manager, supervisor, and driver.

They perform some of the many jobs in the construction industry that require lifting little more than a pen, a set of car keys, a clip board, or a telephone. This can inspire and inform our approach with the Carpenter and the Plumber, and others as well. 

For other challenges your clients face, check out more information at WorkNet Solutions.