SAN DIEGO—A program to accommodate employees with disabilities or medical restrictions helps Wells Fargo & Co. retain talented workers, mitigate its risks and maximize productivity, a speaker told attendees at the Disability Management Employer Coalition's annual conference.

Meanwhile, accommodating workers with temporary medical restrictions at the University of California's Irvine Medical Center reduces disability costs, another speaker told attendees at the Aug. 1-4 gathering in San Diego.

Kim Grieve, manager of workers compensation and disability management programs for the medical center, joined Louis F. Antonelli, a vocational rehabilitation counselor and case manager for Wells Fargo, and Paula Aznavoorian-Barry, a vocational program manager for Liberty Mutual Group, for a panel discussion of return-to-work programs.

With about 280,000 workers companywide, Wells Fargo's “accommodations management” program for nonoccupational medical conditions “accommodates people every day, literally,” Mr. Antonelli said.

To do so, an accommodations management team within Wells Fargo's human resources department includes two rehabilitation counselors, two registered nurses, a marriage/family therapist, an attorney, an administrator, a manager and two other employees.

A service center receives requests online or by telephone from employees with medical conditions requiring an accommodation. Supervisors also can provide referrals as can certain business partners, such as Liberty Mutual, the company's disability insurer.

“We are committed to a 48-hour response time,” Mr. Antonelli said.

Facilitating accommodations that help employees remain productive requires training supervisors “on the fly,” he said. It requires advocating for employees and encouraging their managers to find creative alternatives so an employee with medical restrictions can continue to work, he said.

“Part of this has to do with just giving permission to supervisors, managers and team members that it's really OK to think outside the box, it's really OK to figure out how can we do something that will allow a team member to do their job,” Mr. Antonelli said.

Usually, the costs are minimal. The Wells Fargo team maintains a fund to reimburse business units for accommodation expenses they incur over $500, but the fund is tapped infrequently because accommodations, such as purchasing voice-recognition software or performing ergonomic evaluations, rarely reach that level of expense.

Wells Fargo has not tracked the program's return on investment, but the efforts mitigate the risk of running afoul of laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Mr. Antonelli said.

Wells Fargo also sees the program as a productivity management tool that provides solutions to help retain valuable talent, he said.

But department managers often hesitate to provide alternative work for their own employees, especially during tough economic times when they may be short-staffed already, the speakers said. They want workers who can complete all normally required functions.

To help overcome supervisors' resistance, an employee's home department must help pay expenses when alternative work must be found in another area.

“It really encourages the home department to keep their employees and think twice before they say, "No, I can't accommodate them,'” Ms. Grieve said.

Creativity and face-to-face collaboration with department managers are essential to devising alternative work, she added. One result is that medical center employees can go to the hospital's emergency room as soon as they learn of work restrictions, show the charge nurse the documentation detailing the restrictions and begin working there immediately.

“This can happen 24 hours a day, seven days a week without the upfront coordination of our transitional return-to-work coordinator,” Ms. Grieve said. That reduces lost time by eliminating the typical arrangements required between an employee's original work department and an alternative department where there may be new tasks they are capable of performing.

Patient nurses have been accommodated with work in the information technology and parking services departments while hospital custodians have guided visitors through the facility.

“They don't need to carry, lift, push (or) pull,” Ms. Grieve said. “They can simply direct traffic and answer basic questions about the lay of the land.”

As a result, 212 employees participated in the medical center's transitional return-to-work program during the 2008-2009 fiscal year. About 70% returned to full duty within 90 days, which saved $285,000 in disability costs, Ms. Grieve said.

During the past three years, short-term disability claims at the medical center have decreased 10% while workers compensation lost days decreased 39%, she said.