Every Workers Comp Claim Starts with an HR Decision
May 15th, 2008 by Margaret Spence
During my years as an adjuster, I received countless phone calls from employers saying, “I should have fired him or her,” or, “He or she was a lousy employee,” or, “I’m not sure why I let him or her get away with that,” or, “If I had only let him or her go yesterday, I wouldn’t have this claim on my hands today.” This brings me full circle to why I feel, every workers’ compensation claim starts with an employment decision. As the employer, either you did not provide enough training and oversight to the employee or you hired the wrong employee to do the job or you kept the wrong employee too long. Most workers’ compensation claims can be traced to one of these bad HR decisions.
Let’s evaluate a typical hire for most companies:
There is an open position so you place an advertisement in the newspaper or online. Multiple resumes come in, you narrow your search to ten people, however only three people show up for the actual job interview. Of the three, you decide to hire Jack. After completing the background and reference checks, Jack is told to show up at 8:00 A.M. Monday morning and report to the HR Department to complete his paperwork.
Monday morning, here is the exchange that takes place:
“Hi, Jack. Welcome to the company. Fill out your paperwork, sit in the break room and watch the safety video and I will take you to work with Charlie, our senior employee. You will watch how Charlie does the job for two or three days, then you’re on your own. We are here if you have any questions. At XYZ Company, we have an open door policy.”
With this scenario, you are hoping that Charlie, your superstar employee, will pass down all of the requirements for the job. In reality, Charlie is frustrated because he has to train all of the new employees without any recognition, pay increase or bonus of any kind, and he passes down his bad habits, his frustrations and what I like to call his accumulated employee baggage to Jack. Before Jack has a chance to get his feet wet, he is already forming a negative opinion of your company. Before long, you are totally surprised when Jack is injured and out on workers’ compensation. I call this the passing the torch or the tribal training principle.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13 percent of all injuries occur within ninety days of hire, 23 percent occur within the first four hours on the job! These statistics highlight the one ingredient that is often missing for most employers – effective workplace training programs. Employers fail to understand that passing the torch is not training.
Understanding the specifics of each task you are asking your employees to do is essential to preventing injuries. Training your employees, mandating that they follow appropriate procedures and providing ongoing educational opportunities is the key components of an effective injury prevention program.
The first action an employer should take before they ever place a help wanted ad in the newspaper, determine the essential functions and demands for all jobs within their organization. Employers often hire based on an unrealistic idea that all they need is a warm body in a position because “anyone” can be trained to do the job.
This is the first mistake on the road to a workers’ compensation claim. It is essential that each job fit the worker and that each worker fit his or her job. What does this mean?
Employees must understand the specifics of each task you are asking them to do. Along with the specifics, they should be provided with appropriate safety training and the safety rules that apply to their job and their work areas. Employers, who have successful injury prevention programs, create a training matrix that outline the minimum safety training required for all positions. They use the matrix to implement training programs that are uniform, consistent and job specific. New employees immediately understand the importance of working safely and they understand the safety exposures within their work areas.
Before the hiring process, write a clear job description, and present that job description to the employee during the interview process. Ask specific questions to make sure the job requirements are understood. Evaluate and determine if the candidate meets the requirements for the job. Remember, the employee is evaluating your company just as you are evaluating the potential employee. Employees want to know what you are expecting from them so they can make an educated decision regarding accepting the position.
After presenting the job duties and selecting the candidate, it is your job to use the probationary, or introductory, period to train and evaluate the employee. This period is called the “introductory” period for a reason. Introduce the new employee to your work environment, job concepts and evaluate their performance, then determine if they are the right fit for the position.
Employers must recognize that bad hiring decisions and improper training programs can increase the likelihood that an employee will be injured. Spend the money to train your employees correctly—from the beginning. If you evaluate the overall cost of one workers’ compensation claim—including: the loss of manpower, the administrative cost to manage an injured employee, the workers’ compensation premium cost and the overtime to cover jobs that would have been done by the injured worker—you will see the cost benefits of integrating an effective safety training program into your workplace.
