BACKGROUND: Emerging vocational rehabilitation services for people with spinal cord injury seek to fill the gap between hospital and community services, and preserve jobs before they are lost. This is consistent with the longstanding notion within disability management and workers’ compensation of ‘occupational bonding’, or the relationship between the person and their employer. Despite the importance of this factor, there is little research underpinning the concept of occupational bonding specifically.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the extant literature about vocational rehabilitation after spinal cord injury to summarise the evidence for the concept of occupational bonding after SCI.

METHODS: A systematic review combined with a narrative synthesis of the literature.

RESULTS: Evidence supported workplace-based social support, particularly from the employer, as being a key facilitator of return to work. There was also evidence of an intrinsic, values-based component describing the person’s bond to the world of work in general.

CONCLUSION: Reinforcing the employer and co-workers during return to work after a lengthy absence could facilitate employment outcomes. The person’s intrinsic bond to the world of work may also be reinforced by the vocational rehabilitation professional during the often lengthy rehabilitation period following a spinal cord injury.