Don't Make Two Mistakes In A Row in Workers' Comp Return to Work

An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. That’s Newton’s first law of motion. “Don’t make two mistakes in a row,” a quote by Beverly Buffini, from one of the podcasts I listen to called The Brian Buffini Show.

Hello, my name is Michael Stack. I’m the CEO of Amaxx and those two exact opposite statements and concepts are both vitally important for you to understand personally as the leader of your work comp program or as the educator of your clients, as well as for your injured employees themselves in the success of your program.

Newton’s Law of Motion in Workers’ Compensation

What I want to do today is break down those two concepts, what they are and how they work together to drive your program and yourself to greater success. Let’s first talk about this law of motion and kind of what it means. We all kind of know that, right? You’re kind of going in a certain direction and you just kind of keep going in that certain direction unless you don’t, unless you stop, unless there’s some reason for you to change course.

Same is very much true in work comp. Let’s take a look at these return to work rates and this comes from a Washington State L & I study published in the IAIABC return to work paper that they published several years ago. This is a probability that your injured worker is going to return to work ever, probability that they ever return to work at all. Here’s the numbers and you can see how dramatically they start to drop off, 92.8% probability they return to work in some capacity in their lifetime if they’re back to work in less than 12 weeks. Pretty high likelihood that they’re going to be back to work if they get back to work pretty quickly.

After 12 weeks, this drops off a cliff, 55.4% of people ever return to work if they haven’t been back to work in 12 weeks. Critical concepts to now start to understand. This ball is in motion, this ball is in motion, this ball is in motion, this ball is in motion, and then after 104 weeks, less than 5% chance they ever return to work at all if they’ve been out of work for that entire time. The ball is in motion. It’s an important thing to critically understand that if you don’t change it for some reason, intervene before here, get those numbers up here, your employee is going to be likely out of work forever, causing permanent and lasting damage to their entire life, as well as making that claim very expensive.

Don’t Make Two Mistakes In A Row

This other concept I heard on this podcast, The Brian Buffini Show. I’ve been following Brian Buffini for 15 plus years. Great lessons, great information as far as business success, personal success, living a balanced life. Check it out if you are interested in that type of thing. But listening to this concept when they’re talking about teaching volleyball. His wife Beverly was a Olympic volleyball player and they’re teaching their daughters about how to be successful in volleyball. This concept which resonated with me, resonated with my wife, is just don’t make two mistakes in a row. Everyone’s going to make mistakes, you’re going to miss the ball, you’re going to drop the ball in some capacity in our lifetimes, but if you don’t make two in a row, you now start to avoid this ball going downhill in all phases of your life, personally as well as your work comp program.

If you can understand those two concepts, that the ball is going to stay in motion and if you make a mistake, if something goes wrong, if things are starting to go off the tracks, they’re going to continue to go off the tracks unless you do something about it, unless you’re intentional about it, unless you’re aware that if you’re making that mistake, oh okay, let’s not make two in a row. Or you have a bad part of your day, let’s not have that continue and ruin my entire day or my entire week or my entire month or my entire year in this capacity.

Two important concepts to understand, that things are going to stay in motion and if they’re going positively you want that to continue. If you make that mistake, you need to intervene and get things going on the right track.

Again, my name is Michael Stack. I’m the CEO of Amaxx and remember your work today in workers’ compensation can make a dramatic impact on your company’s bottom line, but it will make a dramatic impact on someone’s life. Be great.

Author Michael Stack, CEO Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers’ compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their workers’ comp costs by 20% to 50%. He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is a 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 is founder & lead trainer of Amaxx Workers’ Comp Training Center.

Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.

Workers’ Comp Roundup Blog: https://blog.reduceyourworkerscomp.com/

Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker, attorney, or qualified professional.