How Employers Can Hire, Train, and Retain a Fit-for-Duty Workforce
In today’s fast-paced, physically demanding work environments, especially in industries like transportation, logistics, warehousing, and construction, employers must rethink how they approach hiring and injury management.
It’s time to treat your employees like what they truly are: industrial athletes.
Much like professional athletes, industrial workers need strength, endurance, coordination, and resilience to perform safely and effectively day after day.
But unlike athletes whose careers average seven years, your frontline workers may serve in safety-sensitive roles for 10 to 20+ years—with far fewer breaks and much higher injury risk over time.
So how can employers build a workforce of industrial athletes—and keep them in the game if an injury occurs?
Let’s break it down.
Step 1: Establish a Safety-First Culture and Clear Hiring Policies
HR policies around health and wellness are not just good practice; they’re essential for compliance, risk management, and productivity.
Here are some common HR policies that support employee health and wellness, especially in these environments:
- Drug & Alcohol Testing Policy: ensures employees in safety-sensitive roles are free from substances that impair performance. This policy typically includes pre-employment, random, and post-accident testing, along with clear disciplinary actions and employee education about substance misuse risks.
- Fatigue Management or Hours-of-Service Policy: helps prevent accidents related to drowsiness or overwork. Especially critical in transportation, this policy outlines scheduling practices, rest requirements, and tools like electronic logging devices to monitor compliance with work-hour regulations.
- Injury & Illness Prevention Program (IIPP): is a proactive strategy to identify workplace hazards and reduce incidents. It includes safety training, regular site audits, and systems for employees to report potential risks or unsafe conditions before they result in harm.
- Wellness Incentive Programs: encourage employees to adopt healthier lifestyles through benefits like health screenings, fitness challenges, or support for smoking cessation. These initiatives can reduce healthcare costs, improve attendance, and foster a more engaged workforce.
- OSHA Compliance and Reporting Policies: ensure the organization meets legal safety standards by providing regular training, enforcing reporting procedures, and maintaining up-to-date records of workplace injuries and illnesses, helping foster a culture of accountability and safety.
- Industrial Athlete Program Policy: promotes physical conditioning and injury prevention for labor-intensive roles. It often features pre-shift stretching, ergonomics education, and access to athletic trainers or physical therapy to reduce musculoskeletal strain and improve job performance.
Hiring industrial athletes starts with a policy-driven culture that prioritizes safety and job readiness over speed-to-hire.
Example: New Hire Workers Policy
“All new hires in safety-sensitive roles must complete a job-specific post-offer employment test within 48 hours of receiving a conditional job offer. This will ensure the new hire is able to meet the physical requirements. The final employment decision will be based on the ability to safely and effectively complete these essential physical tasks.”
Step 2: Hire Industrial Athletes with Post-Offer Employment Tests (POETs)
Before onboarding new employees into physically demanding jobs, employers should implement Post-Offer Employment Tests (POETs), also known as Physical Agility Tests (PATs). These are job-specific medical evaluations that ensure new hires can meet the essential physical requirements of the job before injuries happen.
What’s Included in a Post-Offer Employment Tests?
- Strength and Lift Tests – E.g., lifting up to 100 lbs repeatedly
- Muscular Tension Tests – Pushing and pulling heavy items
- Endurance Testing – Repeating tasks over time
- Flexibility and Range of Motion – Bending, twisting, reaching
- Balance and Stability Tests – Essential for high-movement jobs
- Aerobic Capacity Checks – Particularly important for long shifts
These tests are legal under federal guidelines when backed by validity evidence and aligned with the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.
Tip: Work with an occupational medicine provider like CNS Occupational Medicine to build custom physical ability tests tailored to each job description and risk profile.
Step 3: Train and Support Your Industrial Athletes Like Pros
Just like pro athletes undergo regular conditioning, your employees should receive ongoing ergonomic training, job-specific safety education, and stretch-and-flex programs.
Ideas for Supporting Long-Term Performance:
- Daily pre-shift stretch routines
- Regular health and wellness checks
- Hydration and fatigue-awareness programs
- Repetitive motion injury prevention education
- Job rotation to reduce wear-and-tear
Bonus: Employers who do this often see reduced OSHA recordables and lower turnover.
Step 4: Get Them Back in the Game After Injury
Even the best-prepared athlete can get hurt. The question is: What happens next?
A key part of sustaining a strong workforce is having a Return-to-Work Policy and injury recovery plan that gets employees back safely and efficiently—without skipping steps or rushing recovery.
Example Policy: Return-to-Work
“Employees returning from a work-related injury will undergo a modified Physical Ability Test to ensure they can safely resume duty. Modified-duty options will be explored in collaboration with a health provider return-to-work specialists.”
Related: What Employers Should Do When an Employee Gets Injured at Work
Step 5: Coordinate Transportation to Injury Clinics
One barrier to fast recovery is how to get injured workers to care. That’s why transportation planning must be part of your injury response process.
Transportation Options for Injured Workers:
- Carpool with supervisor or coworker
- Company vehicle transport
- Reimbursed rideshare services (Uber, Lyft, local taxi)
- Family member transport (if approved)
Pro Tip: Employers partnered with CNS OccMed can receive partial cost coverage for transportation, ensuring timely access to care without financial or logistical hurdles.
Step 6: Partner with a Clinic That Knows Workers’ Comp
Finally, employers must work closely with their workers’ compensation insurance provider to ensure CNS OccMed is added to the approved provider panel. This ensures:
- Seamless claims documentation
- Accurate OSHA recordkeeping
- Quicker return-to-work coordination
- Fewer disputes and delays
Why CNS Occupational Medicine?
- Custom POET and PAT development
- OSHA-compliant testing and reporting
- Return-to-work evaluations
- Injury care and follow-up
- Ergonomic and job-task analysis
By incorporating post-offer physical ability testing, training like the pros, planning for injury response, and partnering with CNS OccMed, employers can build a resilient, long-lasting workforce.
Want to build a custom post-offer testing program or injury response plan? Contact us at 800.551.9816 or info@cnsoccmed.com to get started.
