Reliance Matrix, a leader in absence and employee benefits solutions, has introduced an expanded suite of services designed to help employers stay compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) while supporting critical business objectives and work force considerations. Developed in close collaboration with some of its largest clients, the new offering is called Workforce Accommodations™.
Workforce Accommodations helps support employers with the legal and procedural requirements of ADA and state disability and pregnancy laws, but goes much further. Optional additional services include support for Religious, Pre-Employment, Vaccine and other accommodations.
“Our technology and service roadmap has always been closely aligned to our clients’ needs and feedback. It’s in our DNA,” said Chris Smith, Vice President of Product Solutions.
Reliance Matrix has been at the forefront of the accommodations market since 2014 when it introduced ADA Advantage®, the first comprehensive ADA management service offering available to employers. Leveraging the market’s largest database, it began publishing an annual analysis of ADA accommodation requests across a wide range of employers and employee populations in 2017. This year’s study is based on a review of more than 28,600 accommodation requests collected during 2022 across a nationwide employee population of 833,000.
“ADA compliance is vitally important,” Smith said. “But like we’ve seen in the larger employee disability and absence market, understanding and conforming to changing legislation can often expose other strategic opportunities for employers.”
“In this case, ongoing client research identified other accommodations, unrelated to federal or state mandates, which would benefit from strategic support and management of the interactive process. We saw the need before it became a pain point,” he said.
Many of the accommodation requests now covered by Workforce Accommodations – like vaccine exemptions and pre-employment accommodations – grew in visibility and importance during and after the COVID pandemic. Others, like religious accommodations, are regulated in various ways but operate outside ADA requirements.
“The ADA is complex and compliance can be challenging for employers due to a dynamic legal and regulatory and environment,” Nell Walker, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, said. “Most employers, even large ones, don’t have the in house legal expertise and bench strength to fully understand and navigate within those requirements. Add to that the rapidly changing employment landscape and an uncertain economic outlook, and you have an opportunity to assist and add value to a wide range of employers.”
“Workforce Accommodations isn’t hands-off outsourcing,” she said. “It’s designed to help organizations execute on the required interactive employee/employer discussions and provide HR and senior management with the information they need to make appropriate decisions with confidence.”
For more information about Workforce Accommodations, contact your broker or Reliance Matrix sales or account manager. For a copy of the 2023 Reliance Matrix Workforce Accommodations Market Report, click here.
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