Keeping Great Employees: The Workers’ Comp Connection

By Laura Helmrich-Rhodes, CSP, Ed.D.

Considering the current labor market, keeping great employees is at the top of everyone’s priority list. Unfortunately, great workers get injured and employers have to do their best to get them back to work quickly and without becoming discouraged enough to move on. This discussion will cover some current research along with offering practical advice for creating and implementing an effective return to work program (RTW).

Finding good job candidates and keeping employees will be the key priorities for organizations in 2023, according to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released Jan. 30. The “2022-2023 SHRM State of the Workplace” report is based on findings from surveys of 1,793 human resource professionals.

The importance of effective employee safety programs cannot be emphasized enough since preventing injuries and illnesses means that no one ends up filing a workers’ compensation claim. Return to work programs focus on those who have been sick or injured at/by work and are receiving workers’ compensation (medical and/or indemnity.) Since workers’ compensation is state regulated, the reader is advised to check state mandates for each work location. Canadian readers are encouraged to read “WorkSafeBC Selective/Light Employment,” because U.S. and Canadian programs have distinct differences. (See relevant link at the end of this article.)

One U.S. state defines RTW as “a proactive approach, endorsed by many health care providers, designed to help restore injured workers to their former lifestyle in the safest and most effective manner possible. A partnership among workers, union representatives, employers, and health care provider stakeholders has been developed in a collaborative effort to return the injured worker back to his or her pre-injury status (Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation retrieved 2/6/2023 pa.gov). Note that this is not merely an employer or insurance company effort, but a collaborative commitment by many.

Laura Helmrich-Rhodes, CSP, Ed.D., is an independent regulations compliance consultant to the Spring Manufacturers Institute (SMI). A former member of PA/OSHA Consultation, she is an associate professor in the Safety Sciences Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she teaches graduate and undergraduate classes on topics such as OSHA standards, safety communications, workers’ compensation and human relations. Rhodes is available for safety advice and information. Contact SMI at 630-460-8588 or laurahrhodes@gmail.com.

Let’s look at the cost associated with workplace injuries to American employers and employees and why it is worth committing to an RTW program.

The National Safety Council (NSC) reports on data collected by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). According to NSC and NCCI, the average cost for all claims combined in 2019-2020 was $41,353. The costliest lost-time workers’ compensation claims by nature of injury are those resulting from amputation. These injuries averaged $118,837 per workers’ compensation claim filed in 2019 and 2020. The next highest costs were for injuries resulting in fracture, crush, or dislocation ($60,934), other trauma ($60,288), and burns ($48,671). The overall cost of workers’ compensation claims can be reduced by returning the worker to his/her job where at least a portion of the wages are not being paid by workers’ compensation. Although this will not impact the frequency of incidents for the employer, it will decrease what is calculated as the severity of the claim.

In 2020 (most recent data), the average days away for an injury/illness was 12. Further, NSC and NCCI estimate that 65,000,000 total days were lost in 2020 due to injuries (not including days lost to further medical treatment or check-ups after return to work). In today’s labor market, the loss of any employee for 12 days causes significant disruption in both manufacturing and supply chain.

Besides the obvious economic cost to the organization, there are many more benefits for both employer and employees by establishing a formal RTW program as outlined by Liberty Mutual Insurance (See link to “Liberty Mutual Building an Effective RTW Program” at the end of this article).

Benefits to employers:

• An employee that maintains a strong focus on returning to work

• Reduced costs associated with retraining, overtime, and hiring temporary help

• Minimizing possible negative effects associated with company productivity

• Retaining trained workers and reducing turnover

• Paying wages for work versus insurance carrier paying benefits

• Ensuring compliance with ADA requirements

Benefits to employees:

• May help to alleviate concerns over continued employment

• Providing a feeling of being needed and valued

• May help to shorten overall recovery time

• Reduces work disruption

Some key advice from more than 30 years of interaction in this arena include the necessity of choosing an insurance company that has high-performing claims management. Before workers’ compensation policy renewal, interview insurance carriers to assure they have skilled and committed individuals to help and encourage the injured employee. Don’t depend on their concept of return to work. Establish your own, companyled, formal, written program along with step-by-step procedures for which the insurance claims department is just one stakeholder/contributor. Assign a champion to interact with claims representatives so that your employees are at the top of their concerns.

Well-written job descriptions describing essential functions have to be created immediately. This is just one of many important reasons to have those ready. As noted above by Liberty Mutual, there are Americans with Disabilities Acts (ADA) laws with which employers must comply. Creating essential functions, prior to a disabled candidate applying for work, is a paramount HR obligation. Further, the job description with essential functions (lifting, standing, reaching, etc.) allows the physician to decide what the employee can do with and without accommodation. Make it one of the procedural steps to send the job description, along with any other important papers, with the employee to the initial visit! Several helpful links regarding writing job descriptions and conducting hazards assessments are provided in the resources below. If the injured worker’s job is a highly complicated task or extremely physically demanding, be certain to consult the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) for help, otherwise, you may be faced with an ADA claim too!

The success of any RTW program depends on all the stakeholders understanding the magnitude of importance and working together (see definition of an RTW again above). All stakeholders need to understand the cost of employees staying home (use the Safety Pays link below to convince the doubtful). Working together requires great communication, even before incidents arise, so that employees are aware modified duty is available and expected. Be sure to publicize the intent to bring injured back to modified duty — perhaps when you share the doctor panel list.

Great communication extends to frequent follow-up contact with the injured employee. Early intervention with the injured employee (within a maximum of 24 hours) has been shown to have a positive impact for both the employee and reducing the potential for litigation. Timely contact helps to rapidly identify modified work restrictions and ensures employees get the information they need. It further sends a message they are needed and valued at work. See research findings in “Managing Federal Workers’ Compensation Injuries and Cost” by Timothy Mallon et al, 2015.

As with any safety/HR program or initiative, measure your program effectiveness. How many workers are you getting back to work? How quickly? If you don’t have many claims, look further back to three or five years ago. What went well? What needs to be improved? Which doctors seem to have the best understanding of the demands in your facility and can develop quick accommodations? Do the panel physicians need to come to the plant to see work being done to have a better understanding of the array of accommodations available? Be objective in this assessment, and don’t get caught up in the weeds of the individual injuries. Just look at the RTW program and the overall effectiveness of those efforts. Did the stakeholders participate? Was a claims person assigned immediately and timely in shepherding the injured employee? Where can the procedure and/or communications be improved? Present those findings to your stakeholders as “needs improvement.”

Preventing injury through design and engineering controls is our first priority and it is worth repeating. Unfortunately, great employees get injured. Getting injured workers back is worth the effort for so many reasons. Make an effective return to work program a part of your company culture of caring. n

Key Advice

Choose the right claims department

Create a step-by-step procedure

Assign a champion to each claim representative

Create written job descriptions immediately

Invite physician panel to visit your facility to better understand work

Publicize the intent and expectation to return to modified duty

Communicate effectively and frequently

Always objectively measure any program’s effectiveness

Helpful Resources

Canadian Resource WorkSafeBC Selective/Light Employment https://rb.gy/fwng1w https://rb.gy/72lycx

What is Return to Work?

Workers’ Compensation Costs https://rb.gy/oasscr

Liberty Mutual https://rb.gy/uinpca

Job Accommodation Network https://rb.gy/arbliq

Job Hazard Analysis (OSHA publication) https://rb.gy/wqukfa

“Managing Federal Workers’ Compensation Injuries and Costs”

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Vol. 57, No. 3S, Federal Workers Compensation Supplement: Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration (March 2015), pp. S12-S19 (8 pages) Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Work Safe BC — Includes information on when there is a disagreement/refusal to accept Selective/ Light Employment (for employers) https://rb.gy/wi9jkg

Risk Assessments https://rb.gy/z5qsfl https://rb.gy/mebsij

Work Safe BC — Example included regarding the details of light duty or alternate work https://rb.gy/fvc3yl