The “cost” of the average workers’ compensation claims continues to increase every year. This is based on a variety of factors, including the aging workforce in the United States. Based on this reality, it is important for members of the claim management team to seek creative ways to return an injured worker back to work in an effective manner. This is best accomplished by transitional duty work.
What is Transitional Duty Work?
Transitional duty work is a method used by the claim management team to return an injured worker back to their pre-injury job, or if not possible, to a comparable position within that same company or a different employer. This process involves the help of many stakeholders within the workers’ compensation system. This includes the employer, employee, attorneys, doctors, rehabilitation experts and the claim management team.
This process should start the minute an injury occurs where the employee will miss time from work. It does not require that the employee has fully recovered from the effects of the injury. It also does not have to mean the injured worker will be in the same position for the entire time during the healing process.
Transitional duty work is also not limited to certain types of employment situations. Injured workers in all types of positions can benefit from this process. It can also include union employees provided it does not violate the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.
Elements of Successful Transitional Duty work
The implementation of a successful transitional duty work program is not a “cookie cutter” approach. The inability to examine and create a program that best fits the needs of your employees and company will only result in failure.
- It is important for interested stakeholders to be creative when working with an injured worker during transitional duty work. This should include a continual evaluation of the employee’s medical restrictions and requirements of various positions. View these restrictions as “abilities” and not “disabilities.”
- Constant and open communication is required of all parties involved in the process. It is also important for the employer and claims management team to be proactive when following up with an injured party. It is also important to remember that studies dispel the myth that injured workers do not want to work. The exact opposite is the norm, not the exception.
- Monitor employee workability. Employers should be aware of what their injured workers are doing and how they are performing in a new role. This may require the employee to be flexible with employees working in a new role where they are learning different skills. While workers’ compensation insurance is required to pay wage loss benefits, employers may want to consider keeping the employee pay rate at the same level, which can improve morale for the injured party. Another reasonable workplace accommodation can include additional breaks for the employee so they can build up a tolerance for work and recover at a faster pace.
Conclusions
Transitional duty work is something every interested stakeholder in the workers’ compensation system should consider. Claim management teams can also be used as a resource to promote a better system and stay involved in the process.
Author Michael Stack, Principal, COMPClub, Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their work comp costs by 20% to 50%. He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is co-author of Your Ultimate Guide To Mastering Workers Comp Costs, a comprehensive step-by-step manual of cost containment strategies based on hands-on field experience, and founder of COMPClub, an exclusive member training program on workers compensation cost containment best practices. Through these platforms he is in the trenches on a monthly basis working together with clients to implement and define best practices, which allows him to continuously be at the forefront of innovation and thought leadership in workers’ compensation cost containment. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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