Assessment services
Physical Demands Analysis
A documented breakdown of what a job physically requires: lifting, carrying, postures, repetition, and environment, measured at the actual workstation. Employers order one before a capacity evaluation, during accommodation, or when the written job description no longer matches the work.
The problem
The capacity test has nothing to test against
The employer needs to know whether the person can do their job. The file holds a capacity evaluation with careful numbers and a job description written years ago for a different workstation. Without current demands, the numbers answer a question nobody asked.
- The job description on file predates the current equipment and layout.
- Task frequencies are guessed instead of observed.
- Each new referral re-describes the same job from memory.
What changes
What IMECore does about it
Demands measured, not remembered
Weights, forces, postures, and frequencies are observed and recorded at the workstation. The document states what the job takes, in numbers the next assessment can use.
The employer recognizes its own job
Supervisors walk through the analysis before it is final. The duties in the report match the duties on the floor, so return-to-work starts from agreement.
A document the next assessment cites
The analysis stays on file as the standing description of the job. Capacity evaluations, accommodations, and pre-placement screens all test against the same page.
Free tools
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Interpreter and accommodation planner
Select the language, accessibility needs, and material requirements. The planner builds the interpreter booking, break schedule, and room checklist.
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IME referral intake checklist
Pick the claim type, province, and who is asking. Tick what you have. Copy what is still missing.
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FAQ
Questions people ask
What is a Physical Demands Analysis?
A structured record of a job's physical requirements: what is lifted and how often, which postures the work holds, how much walking, standing, and handling a shift contains, and the environment it happens in.
How is a PDA different from an FCE?
The PDA describes the job; the FCE measures the person. The PDA comes first and sets the pass mark, then the capacity evaluation tests the person against it.
Does someone visit the workplace?
Usually. Observation at the workstation is what makes the numbers trustworthy. When a visit is not possible, the analysis says so and states what it relied on instead.
When should an employer order one?
Before the first capacity evaluation on a disputed file, when duties or equipment change, or when accommodation talks keep circling because nobody agrees what the job takes.
Keep reading
Related pages
- For teams
Employers
We arrange fitness-to-work and return-to-work assessments, Functional Capacity Evaluations (Functional Abilities Evaluation or FAE in Ontario), Physical Demands Analyses, and Job Site Assessments. You receive capability and restriction against the duties you named, and the employee is told what the appointment is, who ordered it, and who sees the report.
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Functional Capacity Evaluation
A clinician works through a standardized set of physical tasks — lifting, carrying, sitting, standing, reaching — and reports what the person can do against the demands of their job. In Ontario the same assessment is called a Functional Abilities Evaluation (FAE). Employers and insurers order it for return-to-work and disability decisions.
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Job Site Assessment
An assessor visits the workplace, watches the job being done, and records its physical and environmental demands. Employers order one, sometimes called a job demands analysis (JDA), when the written description is out of date or return-to-work needs real duties matched to measured capacity.
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Workers' compensation
We coordinate the examination and deliver a report in the board's language: work-relatedness, restrictions, and the rating the claim file needs.
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Refer a case, get back a signed report
Send the referral and the questions. A coordinator confirms the file and what it still needs, then IMECore coordinates the examination and delivers a signed report.