CHAD TISONIK, CSP, CHCM
Associate Vice President, HNI

Companies today are facing serious workers compensation costs.  If that isn’t enough to worry about, worker’s compensation premiums are rising faster than any other liability insurance costs.  There are a number of tactics to reduce workers compensation costs.  Below are two good ones.  Please share your best tactics by commenting on this blog post.

Obviously, avoidance of the incident in the first place will drastically impact your numbers. I see quite a few organizations missing the mark when it comes to employee understanding of risk.  Many employees believe that an injury is just the collateral damage part of getting the job done. In reality they need to understand the importance (through, hazard ID, training and expectation) at all levels that loss is WASTE.  They get these beliefs from their leaders...What are your leaders teaching? By maintaining a safe workplace and implementing safety programs which provide proper training, employers can avoid those high premium workers compensation claims.

After the loss occurs, employees must believe that they are part of the solution to not lose any time from work whenever possible.  Many states offer a large percentage reduction in the mod calculation for the cases that are paid as medical only. You might be paying some wage to a less productive employee as they heal, but large year over year reductions in the mod can follow. Collaboration at all levels on risk avoidance and risk reduction has a direct link to the bottom line. Profit = Employment.  Do your employees understand that they also play a role in the success of the company? Do they care if your company earns a profit?  They should!  Employee engagement at the center of the organization creates a sense of trust and value within the employee creating an environment whereby employees understand the impact of workers compensation claims on the organization. 

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