Making changes to improve workers’ compensation performance across your organization is hard. Maintaining your improvement might prove to be even more challenging! That’s why it’s important to make sure your processes are repeatable.
Conduct your assessments in a manner that is easily repeated and results over time can be compared. This means limiting open-ended questions and, preferably, using technology to make the trending of results easy.
Providing training for workers’ comp coordinators in the field is important, but how much will they remember six months later if you don’t give them easy access materials to use in the heat of the moment? Ideally, your organization will maintain an on-line instruction manual providing straightforward directions for each stage of handling an employee injury.
For that matter, you want to make sure it is easy to access the forms and tools needed throughout the life cycle of an employee injury. (workersxzcompxzkit)
This might include:
- Call scripts.
- Work availability forms.
- Employee brochures.
- Injury duration guidelines.
- And more.
Invest in repeatable processes and tools:
- Reassess and monitor compliance.
- Ongoing training.
- Easily accessible forms, manuals, and instructions.
- Formal trainings.
- Manuals and standardized processes.
- Standardized tools and forms such as an on-line WC manual, supervisor guides, wallet cards and duration guidelines.
- Examine the need to standardize communications to employees, doctors, claims managers, etc.
Author Rebecca Shafer, Attorney/Consultant, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. She can be contacted at: RShafer@ ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
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Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker or agent about workers’ comp issues.
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