How to Write an Effective Workers Compensation Management Policy
A workers’ compensation policy statement defines your company’s intent to control workers’ compensation costs. As the workers’ comp coordinator you begin by formulating a workers’ comp management policy for your company, keeping in mind policy statements are unique to every company creating them, but have common characteristics.
Make it clear when you begin to draft a workers’ comp management statement it is preliminary and will not be finalized for six months. A preliminary statement is needed now to begin implementing the other aspects of your workers’ comp management program, but you retain the authority to finalize it later.
There is no substitute for time. Time shows the reappearing issues the policy may need to address specifically. Time shows other items you must add to the template. Time makes the policy statement a working document. By waiting a minimum of six months before rolling out the policy, issues are added as they arise.
Policy Goal Statement
The first part of the policy is an overview of the policy and why it was created. Keep the language simple, and whenever possible couch the problem statement in positive words.
Keep the language simple to avoid misunderstandings. State the problem, but keep it positive. When stating the problem, avoid laying blame. If employees are languishing at home, you, as the company, must take full responsibility for bringing them back to work in some fashion — as you are admitting in the policy statement.
You might say something like this:
1. The ABC Corporation proudly announces the creation of a workers’ compensation management program. The goal of the program is to engage in company-wide management and employee practices designed to lower workers’ compensation costs.
2. The practices include the establishment of a return-to-work program, a transitional duty program, and the establishment of post-injury response procedures.
3. The policy is created because at present, employees who are injured on the job have no established way of re-engaging the work world during their recovery process.
4. Additionally the company does not have an established tracking system to ensure our injured employees receive the best medical attention immediately after a work-related injury.
Policy Implementer and Beneficiaries
This part of the policy statement describes who’s in charge of project implementation. If you’re multi-sited, you may have one workers’ comp manager with several site coordinators. Or, it may just be you, in which case, your statement can go something like this:
1. This policy applies to all employees of ABC Corporation who are injured on the job now, in the past, or in the future.
2. An inter-departmental workers’ compensation management committee will monitor the overall processes for their departments. Members will be department heads, supervisors, and employees.
3. In the event of a decision conflict, the workers’ compensation management committee has primary responsibility for hearing appeals, using an established appeals process. Representatives from all departments will take part in establishing the appeals process for the workers’ compensation management committee.
4. The workers’ compensation coordinator has primary responsibility for program management.
Keep in mind establishing a committee is time consuming. First, ask decision-makers to appoint committee members. Once they convene, they decide by charter how subsequent committee members will join. A bi-annual election is a good idea, at least for the employee part of the committee.
The Policy and Process
In this section provide more detail about how the policy is to be applied, who is exempt and how conflicts and violations are resolved, including a time frame for effectiveness. For example: “This policy applies to all full-time employees and remains in effect for the next two years.”
Policy Purpose
Boundaries for employee conduct in the event of a work-related injury are established by the workers’ compensation management policy. The policy avoids confusion, sets parameters, avoids conflict and hopefully employees know up front what the rules are.
Thus, if an employee injured on the job and in recovery decides the company might pay for a little elective surgery, the workers’ comp coordinator points to the policy stating: “The policy clearly states that the following kinds of surgery are covered unless specifically linked to the work related injury.”
Addendums
Remember, the workers’ compensation management policy is a living breathing document, designed to serve the people, not the other way around. So, if you find various aspects are not working, realign them to make them more functional.
Policy Kick Off
Let everyone know about your new workers’ compensation management policy. Consider introducing it at a general staff meeting. Serve coffee and donuts, and go over each item verbally. Don’t be surprised if it isn’t widely read by your employee audience. (workersxzcompxzkit)
Make sure employees sign in at the meeting. Then, in the event of any future disagreement, you can point to the sign-in sheet and remind them they attended the workers’ compensation management policy introduction meeting, where all points were covered.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers' Compensation costs, including airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
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