Worker's compensation is one of the trickier issues you can deal with as a manager. You have to balance both your responsibilities to the company and to your employees. Here are some things every employer should know about worker's comp claims.
Worker's Compensation Claims Are No Fault
If an employee gets injured on site, you don't really need to argue about what happened or place blame on one party or the other. Most worker's compensation insurance claims are no fault, which is great because this can help bring the employee and boss together on the same team. Worker's compensation payouts are well regulated by the government as well, so they don't tend to get overblown.
It Still Doesn't Hurt to Have a Lawyer
Still, there are times when a lawyer is a good idea. If you're not sure whether the accident occurred on the property, for instance, then a lawyer should intervene. But some companies like to hire a worker's compensation attorney from the get-go because it alleviates some of the burden on the company. You will have a representative to figure out what happened and how to present the claim; there's no need for you to have awkward conversations with your employee that could feel more like an interrogation.
Employees Will Need Your Help
Employees will likely need some guidance in dealing with the actual worker's compensation claim. The timing of their accident reports and their choice of care providers are two things that can be dictated by your insurance policy, so be sure to review the guidelines with them carefully.
It Helps to Decide Benefits Ahead of Time
Although you may not explicitly share with your employees how you award care benefits for injured workers, it helps to think about it beforehand. If an employee breaks their leg, will you offer them a more comfortable desk, extra unpaid leave, or even additional sick time to heal? If you wait to think about these things at the last minute, you may risk feeling guilty and giving too much. But then you've set a precedent, and you may have to continue offering those benefits to anyone else who gets injured.
Dealing with worker's compensation as an employer is something that you hope you don't have to do too often, but by thinking through your emergency plan and having a strong set of guidelines in place, you can take a lot of the uncertainty out of the process.
For more information, contact a professional after visiting sites such as http://www.hardeeandhardee.com.
