When his boss told HR manager Hal Beeler to look into ways to cut workers comp, he figured out a simple but effective approach.
Here’s his story:
To keep a lid on our workers compensation costs, we needed an effective light-duty program.
It’s not that we had a lot of injuries, but when we had one, the worker tended to stay out for what seemed like forever.
Problem with developing light duty: Where do you start? Whenever we asked managers to give us ideas for light-duty jobs, they’d usually come back with, “I dunno.”
So we tried a different approach with them, without even mentioning “light duty.”
What would you like?
Instead of asking them for suggestions about light duty, we asked: Give us a list of tasks that you’d like to see done in your department but never have the time or people to do.
When we phrased it that way, our managers deluged us with ideas. For instance, nearly everyone said cleaning up the workplace would be great but they had neither the time nor the people.
We took those ideas and categorized them into light-duty jobs that injured workers could do. The results: Since getting the managers involved and creating light-duty jobs two years ago, we’ve cut claim amounts by 75%, which has had a great effect on our premiums, too.
(Hal Beeler, Modesto, CA)
