A plumbing company in Australia provisionally offered a job to a plumber located in the UK. To ensure the plumber was physically fit to perform all occupational tasks associated with plumbing in australia the company requested a functional capacity evaluation before employment was finalised and secured. The plumbing company requested the assistance of a UK based occupational health service to complete the functional capacity evaluation.
A occupational health service provided a therapist to perform a functional capacity evaluations with the plumber from the UK. The functional capacity evaluation involved a range of activities associated with the physical demands of plumbing.
The plumber from the UK passed his functional capacity evaluation which enabled him to accept the job offer in australia. He If now in full time employment and the Australian plumbing company is extremely happy with its new employee.
A large fulfilment centre in Liverpool and Manchester employs over 800 individuals to pick and pack multiple items within a large warehouse. The fulfilment centre began a process of employing a number of new employees and requested the assistance of an occupational health service to ensure they would employ individuals who were capable of enduring the physical demands of being a packer.
Following a consultation the occupational health service advised a functional capacity evaluation would be appropriate to ensure the individuals employed could cope with the demands of the job. The therapists from the occupational health service observed and tested current staff to identify a benchmark in physical fitness. Following this a personalised functional capacity evaluations protocol was established. Each individual successful at interview would be put forward for a functional capacity evaluation. This would involve the assessment of the candidate lifting and moving weighted boxes to a range of heights and distances.
During the interview process one in ten individuals were unable to successfully perform the functional capacity evaluation and were deemed inappropriate for employment. The fulfilment company employed six individuals who have performed extremely well during their first six months of employment. The fulfilment company plan to include the functional capacity evaluation in future pre-employment processes.