Worker compensation claims can be damaging and expensive for a business, but they are sometimes inevitable. If you want to reduce the frequency of liability claims and protect your business brand, read on to find out more about the best practices to implement internally.
Communication and Reporting
Small problems can become big problems more quickly than you realize; this is the case for business-related issues but also for the health and wellbeing of your employees. If one of your workers strains their back and doesn’t report it, it can become an issue in weeks or months.
To avoid this situation, it’s important to encourage communication and reporting for the small issues as well as the significant ones. Don’t forget to build this into your contacts, too, so that employees understand their responsibility and you are protected from any unfair legal claims.
Support Health
Company health initiatives can help employees to stay healthy and reduce the frequency of injury claims. Not only will injuries occur less often, but employees will appreciate the efforts to support their wellbeing in the workplace. This should help to reduce the number of claims.
Companies can support health and wellbeing in the workplace by offering health insurance, offering concurrent leaves of absence, and making it easier to access health and wellbeing services. Supporting employee health is also an excellent way to boost your productivity.
Return to Work
Return-to-work assessments are also important to avoid worker compensation claims. Unless a return-to-work interview is carried out, your company is at risk of incurring damages for an injury or illness that began outside of working hours. Return-to-work interviews can vary in complexity.
A return-to-work interview can be a few basic questions about general health and the reason for the absence; they can also be full medical exams; it all depends on the nature of your business and industry. Return-to-work interviews are useful for protecting the business from legal claims.
Accident Investigations
In the event of an accident in the workplace, an insurance company might require an accident investigation to determine the cause and the liabilities and to avoid reoccurrence, but it’s also a sensible idea to conduct an in-house accident investigation as well; this helps build resilience.
Working closely with workers compensation lawyers businesses can implement systems that make the business more resilient and protect it from present and future legal claims. Worker’s compensation lawyers can their client’s best interests in mind making them a helpful resource.
Final Thoughts
Worker compensation claims are common in SML businesses, but they are also very damaging. Not only can a worker’s compensation claim cost a business significant sums of money, but it can also damage the reputation of a business and make it harder to rebuild the brand identity.
If you want to avoid the many issues around worker compensation claims, you need to follow some of the best practices in the article above. Make sure you have suitable contracts in place and that your employees understand their responsibilities. Also, conduct internal investigations.
