Risk & Business Magazine JGS Insurance Risk & Business Magazine Winter 2017 | Page 25

JOB-RELATED ACCIDENTS
BY: MEAGHAN TYNDALE-WILLIAMS, CLCS,
VICE PRESIDENT, JGS INSURANCE
Show You Care
Get Your Employees Back To Work & Avoid Litigation
D
espite our best efforts
workplace injuries happen.
These accidents can be costly
and leave you vulnerable to
expensive litigation if not
handled properly.
Being suspicious, indifferent, or callous can
cost your company dearly. If your worker
hires an attorney, expenses skyrocket to
$62,652—nearly eight times the average
for claims without attorneys—reports
the California Workers’ Compensation
Institute. That’s because lawyer-assisted
paid-disability leaves last an average of 74.5
days—triple the length of days off for those
who make claims without an attorney.
let them know that if they don’t hear
back within a certain time frame, they
should phone you and you’ll look into
the delay. part-time. A resentful supervisor may
have given the returning employee
more arduous duties or worse hours.
Step in and fix it.
• Comfort from the get-go: If the injury
is serious, accompany your employee
to the hospital. • Reach out: Don’t let workers feel
ignored, which makes them feel
disconnected and more likely to linger
at home, quit upon returning, or
worse, file a lawsuit. That’s how businesses breed loyalty.
Fear, frustration, and unreasonable
terms breed litigation. So don’t
demand doctors’ notes weekly or
threaten replacement if employees
don’t return by an arbitrary date.
Don’t post their jobs as vacant since
coworkers might alert them.
Each day they fail to hear from you,
the more likely they’ll turn to an
attorney. So check in; be empathetic,
not adversarial; caring, not intrusive.
Ask how they’re feeling. Reassure them
their job awaits and they’re missed.
So show you care and avoid such crises
with th ese eight steps:
•
Educate: Encourage safety awareness,
including expectations for staff if they
file for workers’ compensation.
Forty-six percent of those who
hire attorneys do so because of
miscommunications about claims.
They assume the claim has been
denied when actually it has yet to
be processed, reports a Workers’
Compensation Research Institute
survey of 6,823 injured employees.
So announce any action you’ve taken
to help them, such as alerting insurers
about the injuries. Give the address,
phone number, claim number, and
name of the claims representative, and
•
Offer aid: Ask if they need financial
assistance till their first workers’ comp
check arrives. Get claims officers to
launch pay “without prejudice” to
cover prescriptions and physical
therapy before final approval.
• Don’t assume a claim has been
processed just because you filed it
or has been approved because it was
merited.
• Offer help if you suspect an employee
will struggle with complex paperwork.
You’d rather the employee relied on
you than an attorney.
• Check in once staffers return to work
•
Accept that in rare cases, their
motivation is greed. You can’t do much
about that—other than avoid giving
them ammunition. If the injured feel
you’re accusatory, they’ll be more
likely to retaliate with a lawsuit.
And, as you know, that’s not healthy
for your bottom line. +
Meaghan Tyndale-Williams began her
insurance career with Liberty Mutual
in Commercial Lines as a Direct Sales
Property & Casualty Producer. She won
numerous sales contests and awards
while at Liberty Mutual including 2008
Producer of the Year, Millionaires Club
and Liberty Top Producer Club. In 2014,
after having her first of two children, she
transitioned to JGS Insurance to be closer
to home and began her current position as
Vice President.
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