Beware: The Lack Of Compassion Always Raises The Cost Of Worker Injuries
It is often stated that the employer’s most valuable asset is its employees. Most employers invest thousands of dollars selecting and training employees. They also spend thousands of dollars on employee benefit programs and work conditions in order to minimize employee turnover. At the heart of this effort is the development of a positive, trusting, productive relationship between the employer and employee. A work-related injury is, among other things, a major test of this relationship. If the organization fails to show compassion, fails to provide prompt, quality medical care, or treats the employee in a judgmental way this relationship may be destroyed. To make matters worse, employees talk and the word will spread throughout the organization.
Ultimately reducing the total cost of worker injures is all about winning the hearts and minds of employees. Only by sharing the same organizational values and demonstrating these values throughout the pre-injury and post-injury stages of the worker injury can this be accomplished over the long term. As an example, the following are the suggested guidelines for performing the accident investigation with compassion:
- Treat the employee like you would like to be treated. The “Golden Rule” will serve you well. Anytime you are unsure of what to do or how to do something, just ask yourself “How would I like to be treated in this situation?” More often than not the employee feels the exact same way.
- Show concern. It is very important to show sincere concern for the employee’s injury, no matter how minor it is. Always take care of the employee’s injury first, and then begin the interview.
- Put the employee at ease. Use a friendly approach in dealing with the employee. Avoid sarcasm, blame, and threats. Use tact in clearing up any discrepancies in the employee’s story.
- Explain why the incident investigation is necessary. Emphasize that fact-gathering and prevention is the organization’s objective and not faultfinding. Convey that the organization is sincerely trying to find out what happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
- Listen carefully. Get the injured employee’s story first before asking questions. Be sure to listen very carefully and avoid interrupting the employee.
- Avoid “why” questions. Ask any necessary questions that you feel are appropriate but void any “Why” questions as they tend to make the employee defensive. While asking a “Why” question is part of the “root cause analysis” process, it should not be used during the employer interview process as it will only make the employee feel uncomfortable and resist answers.
- Always repeat your understanding of the story. It is very important that, after listening to the employee, that the investigator repeat exactly what he or she understood the employee to say. This verifies that the investigator has understood what was said and allows the employee the chance to correct the story if necessary. If there are still misunderstandings, the investigator should take the time to correct the misunderstandings to both party’s satisfaction.
- Always ask the employee for suggestions. Employees are an excellent source of safety suggestions. Up until the injury occurred the employee was probably thinking: “This will never happen to me” - but it did. Take the time to discuss ways to prevent the reoccurrence of the situation. This may also be an excellent training opportunity.
These techniques will significantly reduce both the direct and indirect workers compensation costs, improve your overall workers compensation claim management program, and improve workers compensation disability management.
The Resource Library within the CompEraser system is loaded with all the tools, forms and checklists you must have to successfully shown genuine compassion to your injured employees. For more information go to www.comperaser.com.
