Workers compensation injuries are expensive to business owners in so many different ways. The most obvious is down time or lost business due to the fact that your injured employees are not able to work while they are recovering from an injury. But since workers compensation insurance policies are experience rated, there are the increased costs of workers compensation insurance as a result of your losses. In addition, it has been proven that injuries and illnesses cause increased absenteeism, decreased productivity and reduced morale among the non-injured workers. But among all of the workplace injuries, some in particular are more costly than others. Read on to see if your company is at risk for any of these types of injures. If so, now is the time to take concrete steps to help prevent them from happening.
The following 5 types of injuries account for 72% of all the direct workers comp costs for employers. The costs for these types of losses total $35.7 billion dollars each year in the U.S. They are, overexertion, fall to the same level, fall to a lower level, bodily reaction, and struck by an object. I would suggest that you take a moment to carefully think about each one of these types of accidents and try to envision how one might happen to one of your workers. Once you have done this, think even more carefully about ways in which you could establish procedures or rules that would help to prevent that type of accident.
Of course you don’t have to go it alone in this process. I recommend that you carefully consider which workers compensation company that you choose to purchase your insurance from because they are all very different when it comes to loss control and safety programs. Many of the companies that offer only workers compensation insurance and no other lines of insurance policies will have more generous loss control and safety offerings. The U.S. Department of Labor says that employers can save $4 to $6 for every $1 spent on safety and health programs. In addition, workplaces with successful safety and health management systems are usually able to reduce injury and illness costs by 20% to 40%. With loss productivity from injuries and illnesses in the U.S. costing companies an estimated $60 billion per year, you can see why taking some time to look into better safety and loss prevention programs for your employees can pay off big.
So check in with yourself on these most costly types of injury causes, then check in with your workers compensation insurance company to see what they can offer you to help you prevent these types of losses. If you find that your insurance company is not particularly helpful, or if they don’t have a rich offering of tools and knowledge to help you prevent more injuries, then I suggest you start looking for another workers compensation insurance company.
At Clinard Insurance Group, we represent a number of workers compensation insurance companies who specialize in this type of coverage only. They have ways to help you reduce and prevent injuries in the first place, and they also have tools and knowledge to reduce the overall costs of injuries once they occur. Give us a call, toll free at 877-687-7557 and put us to work for you today to lower your workers compensation costs, both now and in the future.