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What is a QRC?

QRC stands for Qualified Rehabilitation Consultant. A QRC is licensed through the State of MN Department of Labor and Industry - Workers' Compensation Division and provides vocational rehabilitation services for employees dealing with work injuries. The purpose of vocational rehabilitation is to assist injured workers who may not be able to return to their customary occupation achieve the goal of suitable gainful employment.

Vocational rehabilitation is a right of employees injured in MN, just like medical coverage and wage-loss benefits. Depending on an employee's situation, services may include:

Medical Management
Ensuring treatment recommended by the treating healthcare provider is scheduled and carried out in a timely manner. It also involves communicating return-to-work recommendations to the employer and other parties involved in the claim.

Coordination of Return-To-Work 
If the goal is to return to work with the employer at time of injury, we work with the employee and employer to facilitate a smooth transition back to work. This may include identifying transitional-duty work and/or reasonable accommodations. We never pressure employees to return to work when it is not safe. Only the treating healthcare provider can dictate work-ability recommendations.

Vocational Counseling/Guidance
When dealing with workers' compensation along with the possibility of an involuntary career change due to an injury, it is easy for somebody who is not familiar with the process to lose their way. We routinely offer one-on-one insight to our clients about how to navigate the workers' compensation process. Difficult decisions are often required in paving a path back to work. We readily provide support to minimize the frustrations that come with this process.

Job Seeking Skills Training
Many employees who get injured have not had to search for work in many years. The idea of doing a job search becomes overwhelming on top of being intimidating. We provide one-on-one education and coaching to get our clients up to speed on what employers are looking for in a candidate and how to find the most suitable and meaningful job opportunities in an ever-changing world of work. We also create resumes that have been successful for our clients in job search and assist with drafting of cover letters.

Job Search 
When employees are not able to return to the job they had at time of injury, we assist with job placement and development services to help them find a new job. With our extensive familiarity with the regional labor market and individual connections with several companies around the area, we are prepared to dig deep to find the most ideal career opportunities for the injured worker. We provide information about these opportunities to our clients and monitor/evaluate their progress for the best interests of all involved parties to the claim.

Transferable Skills Analysis
This is a tool to assist with job search and/or retraining. It involves taking an individual's prior job experience to identify their skills, factoring in other data (i.e. physical and mental abilities, aptitudes, etc.), and conducting an analysis that provides a list of potential job opportunities. It is an invaluable tool, especially if an employee has no choice but to leave an industry they are familiar with. 

Vocational Testing 
When there is a need to identify a new career for a client, the more information we can use the better. Testing enables us to discover an employee's interests, abilities, aptitudes, and achievement levels to assist with job search and/or exploration of retraining. We test for characteristics that have been recognized in workers' compensation case law and provide an informative feedback report based on the results to all involved parties. We are not afraid to point out exactly what test results mean as well as what they don't mean.

Exploration of Retraining / Retraining Plans
When return to work with the same employer and job search are not viable options for an employee, exploration of retraining is a worthwhile strategy. Many individuals who get injured have worked in physically demanding jobs. If they cannot return to such demanding jobs because of their injury, they are often unable to meaningfully apply their skills to less physical work. Whether it be training for a certification or a formal course of study for a specific career, the purpose of retraining is to add new skills. This opens up more career opportunities for the employee. Retraining is provided when we can demonstrate that it is the most reasonable way forward, that the employee will likely obtain work after completing the retraining, and that the work will be suitable and gainful for the employee. If that is the case, we compose a plan for retraining and propose it to involved parties.