Dealing with Injuries in the Workplace
Workplace injuries are no doubt something your company strives to avoid. But what do you do when an accident happens? Your answer to that question can greatly impact how your employees react both while injured and in the future.
An easy way to remember how to handle workplace injuries is to follow the C.I.A. Steps. These steps are explained below.
C – Communication
When employees get hurt on the job, they should know immediately who to go to for help. Thus communication about employee injuries actually starts long before someone ever gets hurt.
“As part of your new hire orientation, each employee should be taught what to do and how to handle accidents on the job,” said Crissy Spearman, director of workers compensation at HealthCARE Express. “Additionally, you should have a chain of custody set-up with your occupational medicine clinic communicating the process you want your employees to go through.”
This process should include things like:
1. Do your employees need to be drug tested?
2. How do you want information about the injury reported?
3. Who is the contact at your company for work related injuries?
4. Who has the authority to authorize billing workers comp insurance or the company directly for an injury?
Should an employee get hurt, the people assisting the employee during each step of the process should communicate extremely well, so there are no misunderstandings. It is important to highlight you are there to help the employee in a non-adversarial way.
I - Intervention
Perhaps the most important key to helping an injured employee is early intervention. When an employee is hurt on the job, make sure they seek help immediately.
A study done by the Journal for Occupational Health & Medicine found that early communication and an early comprehensive review of the person’s situation can identify potential return to work barriers at a time when they are simple to address. Additionally, job modifications facilitating early return are best designed in a partnership between the employer (supervisor) and the employee. The earlier this is done the better the results.
A – Avoid Confrontation
You should work to avoid confrontation with employees whenever an injury occurs. When situations become adversarial, you should know most of the time the issues have nothing to do with the medical condition. In many cases, employees are usually upset with issues surrounding their injury.
When a confrontation arises, hear the employee out completely. You may be able to diffuse the situation simply by clearing up miscommunication. Never guess at an answer. If you do not know the answer to a question, make every effort to get the right answer in a timely manner.
Accidents Cost Money
Remember, for every dollar spent on the direct cost of an employee’s injury or illness, you will spend much more to cover the indirect or hidden costs. To help control losses, you should always address safety and health issues along with employee productivity.
When injuries occur, find answers to the following questions to help ensure your employees do not repeat the accident in the future:
1. What happened?
2. Why did the incident happen?
3. How could the incident been prevented?
4. What action is being taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again?
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