Injury Management -The Importance of Supervisors
What factors determine whether or not an employee will successfully return to work following an injury? You might think the type and severity of the injury or the type of work they do. While these factors do play a part, there is another factor that is vitally important in each and every case but is often overlooked and that is simply sustaining a good relationship between the employee and their supervisor.
Unfortunately, many line supervisors are not well trained in injury management processes or are put off by the paperwork involved. As a result they end up taking a step back when they should be encouraged to active an active role. The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert in workers’ compensation to effectively manage an injured employee. As a supervisor there are simple things you can do to support your employees and help facilitate a successful return to work.
Be open and transparent. Explain the injury management process including the employee’s rights as early as possible. If an employee is not armed with the right information, they will seek it from other sources which may not be accurate. Providing injury management toolboxes to the workforce and injury management training for your supervisors is an investment in better injury management outcomes.
Pick up the phone. One of the most common complaints we hear from injured workers is that no-one from their workplace has bothered to contact them following an injury. A brief chat to see how they are going can go a long way to help keep an employee engaged and motivated to return to work.
Manage the person not the statistic. Finding meaningful duties for the employee does not mean scrambling to find “hospital based duties” for someone after they come out of surgery in an attempt to avoid an LTI. It is about working with the injury management advisors and medical practitioners to identify suitable duties that are within the medical restrictions and that match the needs of the business and the employee’s skill set.
