1. Use good hiring practices. Always check a job candidate's background before hiring and require prospective employees to complete a detailed application form. Then check with a qualified local attorney to ensure you take all legally required actions prior to obtaining and using any of the following information about your applicants:
- Criminal records
- Credit balances
- Previous employment references
- Motor vehicle reports
- Pre-employment drug screens
2. Promote workplace safety:
- Set a good example by practicing good, safe work habits.
- Allow employees to report unsafe work practices without fear of reprisal.
- Be accessible to employees.
- Set up and attend regular safety meetings.
- Make sure good housekeeping rules are followed at all times.
- Enforce safety rules.
- Train and motivate employees to think and work safely. Safety meeting topics could include handling equipment and driver safety.
Employees should learn about the physical and health hazards of materials they work with and how to protect themselves. Each new employee should also attend a safety orientation when he or she starts.
3. Allocate loss and insurance costs. This is a good tactic for larger businesses, Zurich reports. These costs can be organized by location or department, and some companies make the costs part of the manager's performance review and pay plan to increase awareness of loss costs.
4. Designate physicians or clinics. If permitted by law in your state, this tactic can help lower medical costs for your company. Your insurance carrier can provide a directory of preferred medical providers located near your business.
5. Implement a modified-duty or transition-to-work program. Assuming the employee is able to work, this type of program can bring benefits not only to your business, but to your employee, too. These programs can assist in the reduction of workers' compensation losses and reduce the possibility of fraudulent claims. In addition, they aid the employee with productive work and can help them recover faster.
6. Provide an array of employee benefits. Offering a number of choices for employees assists in the reduction of workers' compensation losses. It can also reduce the risk of fraudulent claims.
7. "Call in three." Report all workers' compensation claims within three days of the incident. This provides better service for your employees and can help reduce costs for you.
8. Know your experience rating. Workers' compensation rates are set by states. The states establish "manual rates" for employers in various types of business. This sets a baseline rate, which undergoes many calculations, including the "experience rating."
The experience rating:
- Compares your losses to the average risk of similar businesses.
- Is usually computed from the latest available data from the last three years.
- Is designed to give you some influence on your final premium.
- Provides incentives for safety programs.
- Promotes occupational health and safety.
This information and more is available on the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) Web site at www.ncci.com; visit the "Introduction to Workers Compensation" section.
9. Help stop fraud. Although most claims are legitimate, too many are inflated or fraudulent. You don't want to pay for that. As an employer, you can assist the investigative process at its most crucial point: when the claim is first reported to you. Red flags for potential fraud include:
- The injured employee is disgruntled or facing imminent firing or layoff.
- The injured employee took unexplained or excessive time off prior to the accident.
- The injured employee has a history of reporting subjective injuries.
- The accident has no witnesses.
- Fellow workers hear rumors that the accident was not legitimate.
- The accident occurs shortly after the employee reports to work on Monday.
- The accident occurs in an area where the injured employee would not normally be working.
- The incident is not promptly reported to a supervisor.
- The details of the accident are unusually vague.
- The nature of injury is not consistent with the facts.
Zurich advises that no single indicator alone is necessarily suspicious. Even the presence of several indicators does not mean fraud definitely has been committed. Such a determination can be made only after a thorough and complete investigation.
10. Use other resources.
- Your insurance carrier — talk to your account executive.
- Outside safety consultants.
- Government and private Web sites. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offers a "Small Business Compliance Guide" with safety checklists. Visit www.osha.gov.
