Workers’ compensation: Employers can be proactive too

Talking about workers’ compensation programs often brings thoughts of insurance, injuries, and claims. However, there are a lot of steps that employers can take to make the workplace a safer place to be, which will benefit everyone involved.

When it comes to managing a workers’ compensation program, California employers face some of the most significant challenges because California laws are extremely complex. Additionally, the costs associated with a claim can have significant impact on the bottom line.

California employers can reduce the complexity and costs by having a proactive safety program in place that addresses the complexities and improves workplace safety at the same time.

Workers’ Compensation and Employee Safety Programs: Ideas for California Employers

Establishing and ensuring a safe working environment is critical. By planning for workplace safety, employers can improve morale and reduce costs at the same time. In fact, many workers’ compensation insurance carriers in California have “loss control” teams that can assist employers in ensuring workplace safety. Employers can check with their brokers to find out what types of resources are available. Here are some additional ways to be proactive when it comes to workplace safety and comprehensive workers’ compensation programs:

• Make sure that your injury and illness prevention program is current. The workers’ compensation insurance carrier may be able to review it for you, but they may not be able to create it. There are a lot of other outside resources if you need assistance creating such a program.
• Conduct regular safety inspections. By doing this, you will find safety concerns to remedy before an injury happens. Review previous accident reports to find ideas if you don’t know where to start. If you do not have an internal resource to do this, you may be able to ask for someone from your carrier’s loss control group.
  
  However, “understand that safety inspections from the carrier’s side sometimes have different meanings. Sometimes the carriers will want to come in and do a safety inspection before writing your account or before renewing your account.” Cathy M. Divodi explained in a recent CER webinar. Be mindful of this difference in perspective; it may be necessary to do this step before you involve the carrier.
• Conduct individualized ergonomic evaluations.Ergonomically-designed processes and workstations reduce the incidence of repetitive motion injuries. Some organizations prefer to conduct these as part of orientation to ensure that workstations are set up appropriately from day one.
• Ensure employees complete the proper safety training. Be sure that your new hires are aware of how to safely use any equipment required for their role and how to safely conduct work processes. Look for ways to test them after they’ve been trained to ensure understanding. Consider having policies in place that establish rules to not modify equipment. (For example, outline that it is against policy to remove the safety features of any equipment, even if it speeds production.)
• Utilize train-the-trainer opportunities when possible. When someone external conducts safety inspections or ergonomic evaluations, consider having your team members shadow them to better understand the process. Sometimes employers find that, with training, these functions could be brought in-house. Even if not brought in-house, the managerial team can still benefit from understanding these processes. The same goes for HR and anyone that processes workers’ compensation claims.
• Invest in safety. By using things like safety incentive programs, employers can improve safety and employee accountability for safety. Examples include raffles, safety bingo, rewards/bonuses for meeting safety goals, etc. These types of programs can encourage employees to help one another to avoid injuries. However, be careful to avoid incentivizing employees to not to file workers’ compensation claims when an injury occurs!

The above information is excerpted from the webinar “California Workers’ Comp 101: How to Manage Your Program in a Challenging Environment.” To register for a future webinar, visit CER webinars.

Cathy Divodi is the owner of Artemis Claims Consulting and has over 20 years in workers’ compensation claims management. She is a workers’ compensation hearing representative and has a wide range of specialties including: expertise for insured and self-insured employers, reviewing claim reserves and analyzing losses, conducting claim audits, training on reporting of claims, early return-to-work programs, abuse/fraud and first-aid programs, expertise in workers’ compensation litigation and more.