Results

There is most likely a lack of management commitment to manage injuries properly.

This may be because managers perceive that managing injuries is not their responsibility or it may be due to a lack of support from senior management. Workers may feel as though they are a problem or burden to their employer and colleagues and this can lead to poorer return to work outcomes, a perception of bullying or harassment and generally higher claims costs.

It can seem that employers with this culture have fewer injuries than others but in fact what is occurring is that injuries are not being reported when they should be and this leads to significantly higher claims costs and time lost as claims are only lodged when they have got to a point where they are very serious.

Employers that tick mostly in the red zone tends to have much higher than average injury durations and a high percentage of “problem” claims.

Next steps

1. Make sure that you introduce a clear and simple policy for injury management based on the principals of early return to work, support and tolerance.
2. Clearly define everybody’s place in the injury management process. Train all managers and staff in the process and enforce functions through performance reviews.
3. Appoint and train a return to work coordinator. The return to work coordinator should be recruited from within the organisation and have a good understanding of the business and people.
4. Once this person is appointed give them the time and resources to carry out their functions properly. A return to work coordinator should have the authority of senior management to make decisions on return to work and should not need to ask permission to fulfil the role.
5. Make sure that all managers are responsible and accountable for injured workers in their direct sphere. Managers should be involved in all return to work negotiations and decisions (under the guidance of the return to work coordinator).

Results

You have a consultative mechanism in place but it may be incomplete or undocumented. You may inform your staff of new processes but this is done informally and you do not have a formal mechanism in place to receive and consider feedback. Even if you do engage your staff, without formal documentation it is difficult to ensure that all required consultation occurs and that the process is consistent and fair.

Whilst you do involve staff in major decisions you may not consult in other aspects of your business or provide a forum for regular feedback. You may not let people know that you do consider their feedback resulting in a lower level of engagement. This can be remedied by providing information on what has been received and giving feedback on the process.

In the case of the injury management process it is important that workers and managers are fully involved in the return to work process and that decisions are made considering all parties views. Above all the process must be transparent and fair to all parties.

Next steps

1. Make sure that you introduce a clear and simple consultation procedure based on the principles of transparency and inclusion. If you do not have a formal procedure in place you may not always consult when you should and having a procedure shows that you have a consistent and fair process in place. It also allows you to properly measure the effectiveness of your consultative process.
2. Ensure that employees are consulted about any decision or change that may affect them. This includes involvement in the injury management and return to work process.
3. Make sure your employees know that you consider and value their opinions. This can be done via team meetings, notices or other communications that show what feedback/suggestions have been made and what consideration has been given to them. You may consider formal recognition of particularly good feedback or suggestion.
4. Integrate injury management consultation into your existing consultation procedures/practices.

Results

You probably do not have an adequate training program. In relation to injury management this can mean that your worker’s are unaware of your early return to work policy, their responsibilities to report injuries and disclose information or your expectations of behaviours.

In addition your line managers (supervisors) will most likely not be aware of the importance of their roles and consider that return to work and management of injuries is not their responsibility. This will invariably lead to lengthier periods of time off of work (for even relatively minor injuries) and can also create a general level of dissatisfaction amongst the workforce.

It will be difficult for you to enforce your business code of conduct or behavioural expectations if you do not provide adequate training for your staff which may mean your general work culture and climate will be negative.

Next steps

1. Perform a simple training needs analysis for your employees. This can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet that lists all of your business roles/tasks with a list of the skills required to perform the tasks. You should include a knowledge of your safety and injury management procedures in this. You could then consult with your employees to determine what skills and knowledge they have and cross reference this against your skill matrix. This will help you to understand the training gaps within the business which you can begin to address systematically. This method will ensure that all training is covered but just as importantly is relevant to your business.
2. Make sure that injury management/early return to work is part of your standard induction program.
3. Make sure that you keep training current. In the case of injury management you may wish to have injury management as an agenda item for team meetings or you may diarise regular updates to training as part of your training matrix (above).
4. It is important to keep records of what you have done. This will prevent double-ups of training and also will be a vital part of any disciplinary or SafeWork SA activity. It is also a legislative requirement.

Results

It is likely that you have no early intervention process or a limited one. This does not mean that you do not care about your employees or that you never provide duties – simply that you do not have a systematic approach to early intervention.

An important aspect of injury management is integration into your normal business process. Where the response to an injury is “I am too busy to deal with that now” or where your response is to await what the agent does you are dramatically increasing the likelihood of longer periods of time off of work and increasing your overall risk as workers that are so inclined will know this and you may develop a culture of claim = time-off. This can be avoided by implementing and managing an injury management system.

Next steps

1. Design and implement an early intervention system. This is a simple process of writing out your expectations and describing the roles and responsibilities of all employees. Your procedure should contain tight timeframes for reporting of injury and protocols for workers, supervisors and the return to work coordinator to follow. The procedure should also include your commitment to return to work and how you will communicate this and the availability of duties to the employee’s treating doctor. You may also include details on preferred medical providers if applicable (refer below).
2. Include supervisors as the first contact and provide training and authority for them to be the “frontline” for early intervention and return to work. Your supervisors are in a position to know the employees, what jobs are available and how an injured worker is coping with duties. It makes sense to rely on them for ensuring the return to work process is working.
3. Remember the injured employee. Make sure they are involved in all aspects of the process and are kept informed.
4. Always provide alternative duties where at all possible. Remember that in a vast majority of cases alternative duties are temporary in nature and you do not need to restructure your entire business to accommodate them. The benefits in the reduction of time lost and claim costs far exceed the inconvenience of providing work for a little while.
5. Where it is practical to do so develop a relationship with a nearby clinic. Invite doctors to meet you and tour the worksite. This will assist in identification of duties and will reduce the instance of time lost due to doctors being unaware of what workers do.

Results

You do not set injury management goals, targets or KPIs. You may not have a system of regular reporting to senior management or they may be no mechanism in place to act on reports. You may not keep sufficient records of injuries/incidents or properly analyse them to make sure they do not happen again. Your procedures may also be out of date or irrelevant to your current practices and you may not have a system of internal audit and review.

All of these things can mean that you do not control your injury management system properly and this leaves you vulnerable to higher levels of injury and claims costs.

Next steps

1. Design and implement an injury management system. The procedure should reflect your process and must contain clear and concise expectations and accountabilities for you and your staff. The system should build in internal review and provide guidance on reporting and internal audit.
2. Make sure your system can be accessed by all of your staff but modified and edited by only a few people. This will ensure that you do not have multiple versions of the same documents and that you can be certain that the procedures are current and authorised.
3. Set goals, targets and KPIs for your injury management system and make sure you report on them regularly. The frequency of reporting will be dependent on the size of the business but should ideally be no less than quarterly. Review your goals annually based on previous and desired performance and never set goals that you cannot achieve. Remember KPIs are there to let you know that there may be a problem developing and to allow you to make adjustments before issues become big.
4. Make sure you keep detailed records of incidents, injuries and investigations. It is important that these records are kept formally (i.e. in a register or electronic system) rather than simply placed in a folder on shelf. These records will form the basis of your system review and reporting and will be a vital part of the improvement process.
5. Link goals and KPIs to accountability mechanisms such as performance reviews and action plans.