How many employees are STILL out of work (OOW) — not back to work or on transitional duty? What's most important is that you KNOW this number, because unfortunatley, most employers do not know how many employees are out of work (OOW) at the current time. They may be able to discuss the total incurred or the annual cost of workers' compensation, but there's a 99% chance they won't be able to tell you how many employees are OOW at this very moment due to a workplace injury. That alone should tell you the priorities — dollars or employees
If many are OOW, you need to analyze the reason for so many employees being OOW. If the TPA isn't able to tell you how many employees are OOW and how many lost days have occurred THIS month, you need to ask them to start measuring those. The number of employees OOW is directly impacting your loss experience, so measure this daily, weekly, monthly. The number of employees OOW should be on the tip of your tongue, just like every reservation agent at the airline can tell you how many flights are "on time."
The main reason your workers' comp costs are high is: too many claims lasting too long — so measure how many employees are out of work RIGHT NOW! Happily, I just met the second company (in a 20+ year career) that knows the number of employees out of work! Kudos to that company.
