Senior Reasonable Accommodation & Protected Leave Consultant

Overview

The Washington State Department of Health is hiring a Senior Reasonable Accommodation and Protected Leave Consultant (HRC4) to join the Reasonable Accommodation and Protected Leave (RAPL) team within the Office of People Services. In this role, you’ll serve as an agency expert on reasonable accommodation and protected leave, guiding employees, managers, and supervisors through some of the most sensitive and legally complex processes in HR.

In this role you will provide human-centered, responsive, and consistent service while balancing employee needs, operational considerations, and applicable laws, rules, policies, and collective bargaining agreements. You will help employees and supervisors understand their rights, responsibilities, and available options, and will work collaboratively to identify effective and sustainable solutions.

You’ll manage a caseload of accommodation requests from intake through resolution, working directly with employees, health care providers, and department leadership to find workable solutions under the ADA, FMLA, PFML, and Washington’s civil service rules and collective bargaining agreements. You will also provide consultation and timely responses to employees and supervisors through the RAPL team’s centralized leave inbox, helping ensure questions are addressed consistently, accurately, and with a focus on a positive employee experience.

 

Key Responsibilities Include:

 

Reasonable Accommodation Case Management

Manage a caseload of reasonable accommodation requests from intake through resolution, including accommodating employees in their current role, reassignment, placement in an alternate position, or, when appropriate, disability separation.
Apply a human-centered approach to accommodation case management by listening to employee concerns, clearly communicating processes and expectations, identifying barriers, and helping employees and supervisors navigate complex or sensitive situations.
Compose case-related correspondence, including requests for medical information, approvals, denials, and disability separation letters.
Contact health care providers to help determine eligibility and the scope of needed accommodations.
Perform vacancy searches and assess whether employees being reassigned meet qualifications for open positions.
Maintain confidential accommodation and medical files, tracking systems, and documentation of every step in the process.
Protected Leave Administration

Serve as subject matter expert on the agency’s protected leave programs, including FMLA, PFML, shared leave, parental leave, domestic violence leave, and pregnancy disability leave.
Provide timely, accurate, and employee-centered consultation to employees and supervisors regarding protected leave, shared leave, and related RAPL programs.
Monitor and respond to questions submitted through the RAPL team’s centralized leave inbox, providing clear guidance, identifying when additional information is needed, and referring complex matters for further consultation as appropriate.
Help ensure responses to employee and supervisor questions are consistent with applicable laws, rules, policies, collective bargaining agreements, and agency practices.
Workers’ Compensation and Stay at Work Support

Support the LNI component of the RAPL team, processing workers’ compensation documents and coordinating with employees and supervisors on workplace injury claims.
Retrieve and upload documentation through the LNI portal in accordance with records retention requirements.