Don’t Skip the Workers’ Comp Conversations

There’s some conversations that you would just rather skip. Hello, my name is Michael Stack and I’m the CEO of Amaxx. And today I want to talk about this concept of having conversations, whether it’s in our personal lives or our professional lives, the some conversations that we just don’t like. It’s like you’re like, oh, that’s going to be a difficult conversation. You know what, I would rather just take a pass on that one and kind of go about my merry way in workers’ compensation. There are two specific times that I want to talk to you about, about when employers need to be talking with their employees about workers’ comp. So two specific times employers need to be talking with their employees about workers’ compensation.

“Don’t Tell My Employees We Have Workers’ Comp Insurance”

Number one, there are oftentimes many employers that say, “don’t tell my employees that we even have workers’ comp. Don’t, don’t tell ’em, just shhh, be quiet. Don’t tell ’em about it.”

Because if they know that we have workers’ comp insurance, all they’re gonna do, every single one of ’em, you know, we’ve got a hundred employees, I expect 98 of ’em are gonna file workers’ comp claim like tomorrow if we even tell them that we have workers’ comp at all. So, sshhh don’t tell ’em about it. Don’t tell ’em that we have work comp insurance.

That’s just ridiculous. It’s a ridiculous, uh, idea that every employer is required to have it for a reason. And the more that you tell your, the more you inform your employers, the more you’re establishing that level of trust, the more you’re engaging them actually as a vital part of that organization, rather than just a robot that could be replaced. And we know there’s just so many layers of why that’s important to engage your employees. So number one, tell ’em you got work comp. We talk about our employee brochure. I talk about our employee brochure often, often, often because it is so valuable. Talk to them at the time, you know, basically of hire or you know, just a general meeting. Just tell ’em about your work comp program. Tell ’em what you got going on. Lay those expectations.

Time of Injury

Number two, time number two is at the time of injury. At the time of injury. So now they’ve just been injured. As we talk about our employee brochure, we talk about telling them about expectations. This is what you could expect from us. This is what we expect from you. This is how this whole thing’s going to work. This is how you’re going to get your meds. This is how you’re going to get your medical treatment. You don’t have to pay your deductible, et cetera, et cetera. How this whole thing is going to work. You’re answering some very simple questions about this process that seemingly very complicated and people have a lot of preconceived notions about, cuz one, if you didn’t even tell ’em about it, you had in the first place. How’s their level of trust now for you that you didn’t even tell ’em you had work comp at all?

And now they’re injured and they’re like, oh, what? What am I going to do? You know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna protect my back and I’m gonna hire an attorney. I’m just setting yourself up for challenges right out of the gates. So tell ’em at the hire time, tell ’em generally if you haven’t, you know, after they’ve been hired, you haven’t told ’em specifically about it. Now tell ’em at the time of injury, go through that employee brochure.

Don’t Skip the Conversations

There are so many conversations that we’d just rather skip. We’d rather be like, ah, you know what? I don’t want to deal with this. We got a lot. We’re working on these widgets. Our production demands are way up. Our staffing’s way down. We got a lot of stuff going on. We got a lot of time, blah, blah, blah, blah. Have the conversation. It’s gonna set yourself up.

It’s Better to Have the Conversations

Well, here’s my lesson. Here’s my lesson for today. It’s better to have the conversation. It’s better to have the conversation. It’s better to have the conversation. It is better to have the conversation specifically in work comp at the time of hire. Lay it out the expectations before they’re injured. Go over it again after they’re injured. There are some conversations personally, and professionally, with our spouses, with our siblings, with our business colleagues, with any professional environment. There are plenty of conversations that we would just rather skip that take away though though is it’s better to have the conversation, get on the same page, work through whatever challenge you’re working through in the context of worker’s compensation in terms of injury, managing. It will set you up for success.

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 the founder & lead trainer of Amaxx Workers’ Comp Training Center, which offers the Certified Master of Workers’ Compensation national designation.

 

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

 

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