An audit of your workers' compensation program will generate recommendations, and you'll need to start chipping away and implementing the recommendations. Start with ones that need the most immediate attention and the ones that can impact the bottom line the most, start with those.
Five Tips for Getting Started
1. Use your report to gain management commitment.
2. Develop a "case for action" — a five-minute statement to your manager about why you need to change and how you're going to do it.
3. Start at the top and work your way down.
4.Don't wait until you've got management commitment to do some of the smaller things, such as hold file reviews or invite the doctor to file reviews.
5. Remember that the bigger steps you take and the more tenacious you are, the quicker your costs will go down.
The most important thing a risk manager should remember after the audit is completed is that he or she needs to start somewhere. Sometimes a company will get a report and say, "Gee whiz, 102 things we're supposed to do." It may seem so overwhelming your company doesn't know where to start. If this type of thinking prevents you from starting at all, and all the audit recommendations are for naught.
Often companies will say can't start because they don't have the appropriate data, and they can't get the data unless they have a new computer system. We call this analysis paralysis. If the risk managers feel they've been analyzed to death they become afraid if they don't do the perfect thing-exactly the right way-it won't succeed.
Certainly one of the first things you have to do is use your report to gain management commitment. You have to develop what's called a "case for action," which is just a five-minute statement to your manager about why you need to change and how you're going to do it. The case for action is starting at the top and working your way down, where you meet in the middle. (workersxzcompxzkit)
You don't have to wait until you've got management commitment to do some of the smaller things, like hold file reviews or invite the doctor to file reviews, of course, the bigger steps you take and the more tenacious you are, the quicker your costs will go down.
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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