Workers Comp Savings – WCRI Proves 4th Key
I wrote the Five Keys to Workers Comp Savings many years ago. When a great research company agrees with a long-held point, that is always a great sign.
The Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) recently published another great study.
The study Predictors of Worker Outcomes showed employees’ trust of their employers as being one of the “silent variables” that determined any upcoming return to work issues.
A few of the statistics covered by the WCRI in the study were:
- Workers who were strongly concerned about being fired after the injury experienced poorer return-to-work outcomes than workers without those concerns.
- One in five workers who were concerned about being fired reported that they were not working at the time of the interview. This was double the rate that was observed for workers without such concerns. Among workers who were not concerned about being fired, one in ten workers was not working at the time of the interview.
- Concerns about being fired were associated with a four-week increase in the average duration of the disability.
The WCRI study covered eight states. The eight states are Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The workers surveyed three years post-injury.
The study results can likely be applied to all states as they were generic in nature.
In 1986, I originally wrote and presented the Three Keys To Cutting Workers Compensation Costs. I have since added two more Keys. In 1989, I added Employee Treatment as the fourth variable. The addition of a Sixth Key is in progress.
I had seen so many files were employees that were not treated fairly by their employer post-WC-accident. These files always cost more as the injured employees basically negated all return to work efforts. This caused longer periods of Temporary Total Disability and higher Litigation Expenses.
I had access to a very large pool of public entity data in the late 1990s. I decided that I would try to analyze the monetary value of not treating employees fairly post-injury. The files where the employees had kept a good relationship with the employer and vice-versa resulted in an increase of 400% to the value of a file.
There may be times when keeping a good relationship with the injured employee is just not possible. Most of the time, the injured employee will respond positively to a fair-minded employer post-injury. WCRI has proved that point in eight states, if not more.
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