Mandatory Agility Tests

brown

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-16-03 AT 08:25AM (CST)[/font][p]Can we institute mandatory agility tests for all employees across the board?

The company is an ambulance service. An agility is required upon hire. We now have employees who are out of shape and overweight. We would like to, therefore, require an annual agility test.

Whatever

What is the purpose of this test?

rad

Do all your positions require a certain level of agility?

Betty I_O

Tread carefully. You may have to prove that agility is a bona fide occupational qualification. How do you define agility and then how would you determine it? Who would be devising the criteria for the test? Will qualified medical or occupational personnel be administering it? What will the consequences be if a current employee doesn't pass your "test"?

We have EMT/Paramedics who are "first responders" and provide pre-hospital ALS in both urban and rural settings. Their competencies are evaluated annually in a Simulation Lab; they also must demonstrate their competency with high risk procedures/equipment, as measured by direct observation of their daily practice. Our EMT/Paramedic teams consist of two employees; each must lift and carry up to 100 pounds of supplies and equipment unassisted. We have held strictly to the annual competencies for determining their ability to perform their jobs safely and efficiently and have never used "agility" as the basis for removing an employee from field duties.

HR in CA

I too believe you should proceed with extreme caution. My spouse was given an agility test last year for a warehouse position in a food distribution facility. He failed, the reason given was his heart rate exceeded the limits during a 5 minute stair climbing procedure. A month later he was given the same agility test for another company and passed with flying colors. In reviewing why such different test results in a short period of time we discovered the person giving the first agility test was inexperienced and did not place the heart monitor on correctly. The last time the machine had it's calabration checked was 2 years prior. According to the union rep, my spouse should file a complaint, we never did.

If the employee can do the essential functions of the job, then why would you use an agility test?


HR in CA