By Becky Espinoza, OTR
Area Manager – Onsite Testing, Fit For Work
Key Insights
- About 35% of injuries occur within the first year of employment, with one-third of those during the first 90 days.
- Comprehensive post-offer testing services create a more complete picture of candidate match with the offered role.
- Improved candidate evaluation can reduce injuries significantly, benefiting workers and the bottom line.
When organizations evaluate early tenure injuries, the focus is often placed on what happens after the employee starts, such as safety orientation, onboarding, or individual behavior. While these factors are important, national data suggests there is more to the story. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), about 35% of injuries occur within the first year, and over one-third of those injuries happen in the first 90 days of employment. These trends point to a critical opportunity for employers: preventing early injuries by improving alignment during the hiring process. Integrated onsite post-offer testing services support that goal from day one.
The most effective injury prevention strategy doesn’t start on day one—it starts well before the hire is ever made.
Looking Upstream: The Role of Hiring and Placement
Across a variety of industrial and operational environments, a consistent pattern emerges. Candidates may successfully meet minimum physical requirements yet still have trouble when exposed to the full demands of the role. Job demands change throughout a shift depending on pace, environment, and operational pressures. When those evolving factors are not accounted for during the hiring process, the risk of poor fit between the role and a candidate’s capabilities increases. That mismatch can result in injury, both to the candidate and potentially to others around them.
Post-offer testing is an opportunity to go beyond the minimum physical requirements. Application must be uniform across all candidates to comply with EEOC stipulations, but medical history interviews can reveal underlying conditions or past injuries that could impact a candidate’s ability to perform their new role safely.
A physical evaluation tests basic functions, uncovering muscle or joint issues. Finally, onsite agility testing simulates functional movements required for the role, ensuring the candidate is fully aware of the job demands. Combining these elements allows employers and candidates to make more informed decisions regarding mutual fit for the offered role.
Balancing Operational Needs with Workforce Readiness
In high-volume hiring environments, organizations are often balancing the need for speed with the need for precision. This dynamic can unintentionally change how pre-employment testing is used. Rather than serving as a strategic decision-making tool, testing may be viewed primarily as a checkpoint in the hiring process.
However, the value of well-structured testing and the data it generates is too significant to sacrifice, even during periods of high candidate volume. When interpreted in the context of job demands, testing data can offer insight into how a candidate may perform over time, while also identifying opportunities for targeted training.
Testing providers play a critical role in this process by designing job-specific evaluations and ensuring consistent, equitable testing across all candidates. During high-pressure hiring periods, they also help scale testing availability to meet volume demands without compromising quality or fairness.
Good communication among recruiting departments, safety teams, and testing providers is key to maximizing benefits of post-offer testing. Tests must be updated regularly to accurately reflect the associated roles.
Accurate job descriptions are another key element in the process, and testing providers can share feedback with the employer if a notable volume of candidates express a lack of understanding about job demands. Collaboration fosters process improvement on both sides of the testing pipeline, resulting in better candidate alignment and achievement of operational goals.
Interpreting Post‑Offer Testing Through a Workforce Readiness Lens
Interpreting post-offer testing through a workforce readiness lens helps employers move beyond pass/fail decisions to better understand how candidate capability aligns with job demands over time. Occupational therapists (OTs) bring a unique and valuable perspective to post-offer testing by connecting job demands to long-term workforce safety and sustainability. With training rooted in functional movement and job analysis, OTs evaluate not only whether a task can be performed, but how it is performed over time and under realistic working conditions.
This perspective allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between worker capacity and job demands. By partnering with safety, HR, and operations teams, OTs can help interpret testing results, identify patterns, and support strategies that align the hiring process with the realities of the job. Familiarity with those departments allows OTs to develop a clear picture of how the testing process impacts each one. They can then offer education and pathways that achieve employer injury reduction goals.
Building a More Integrated Injury Prevention Approach
Organizations that see the strongest outcomes are those that take an integrated approach to hiring, testing, and onboarding. This includes:
- Aligning testing protocols with actual job demands, including duration, repetition, and environmental factors
- Using testing data to inform candidate placement and onboarding strategies, not only hiring decisions
- Creating communication pathways between recruiting, safety, and operations to ensure alignment
- Setting clear and realistic expectations for new hires regarding the physical demands of the role
When these elements are aligned, organizations are better positioned to reduce early injury risk while also improving retention, performance, and overall workforce stability.
Real‑World Impact: Reducing New Hire Injuries
An organization set out to reduce new hire injuries to benefit both employees and their bottom line. They implemented a comprehensive post-offer testing process, including medical and physical evaluations along with physical agility assessments. Establishing strong communication among key stakeholders and testing providers maximized the value of testing data, improving internal processes and testing procedures. The addition of these testing protocols coupled with onsite ergonomics training contributed to a roughly 50% reduction in new hire injuries.
Conclusion
Preventing new hire injuries isn’t about assigning responsibility to a single part of the process; it’s about building workforce readiness before work ever begins. Hiring, testing, and onboarding are interconnected systems, and when they’re aligned, organizations can move from reacting to injuries to proactively reducing risk. By clearly defining job demands, using post-offer testing data strategically, and maintaining strong cross‑team communication, employers create safer entry points into the workforce.
The most effective injury prevention strategy doesn’t start on day one—it starts with how organizations define, evaluate, and align the job well before the hire is ever made.
Interested in how post‑offer testing can support workforce readiness and reduce early injuries? Click here to learn more about Fit For Work and WorkSTEPS testing services.
Rebecca (Becky) Espinoza holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from Texas A&M International University and a master’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She has worked in a variety of clinical settings within the discipline of occupational therapy, primarily for the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, Shriners Children’s Hospital, and Operation Smile organizations as a Burn and Trauma Rehabilitation Specialist. Becky joined Fit For Work in March of 2020 providing onsite post-offer employment testing support. In July 2021, Becky’s role increased to Clinic Lead Therapist supporting the growth of the Fit For Work San Antonio testing team.
Currently, Becky serves as an Area Manager for Onsite Employment Testing Services for testing teams in south central Texas.
When Becky is not working, you are likely to find her attending a music concert of one of her favorite artists, at a local thrift market hunting down vintage denim, or exploring new local eateries and farmer’s markets.
