Workers compensation insurance is a necessary evil for most employers.  How you handle on the job injuries and more importantly how you handle the out of work situations that you will face with your employees will go a long way toward impacting your future workers compensation costs.  Read below to see some common mistakes that some employers make in this regard and what you can do as an employer to avoid these mistakes and minimize your future workers compensations costs.

The first step towards understanding back to work issues is to understand why it is important for you to be involved.  Some employers take the attitude that the claim has been filed and it is the insurance company’s money now so why worry about it.  This belief couldn’t be farther from the truth.  This is in fact your money as your future rates are determined by today’s claims experience.  And to make matters worse, you will pay over a 3 year period for any one year’s mistakes to the impact is essentially tripled.  Click here to read my blog about the workers compensation experience modification factor and how it affects your bottom line now and in the future.  Now bear in mind that  workers compensation rules are different for every state but this is a guideline that can help you avoid some common errors that employers often make.

Mistake #1 – The Economy is bad and I can’t afford to keep employees on the job who are not able to do the job.  Actually, you can’t afford not to.  Remember, if you are not able to make an offer of light work to an injured employee then your employee will likely continue to receive a good part of their salary as work comp benefits from your insurance company while contributing nothing to your company.  Other employees will have to pick up the slack or you may have to hire and train new workers.  Research shows that healing happens faster for employees who are productive and that a transitional duty program can get them back to work quicker and save you more money in the long run.

Mistake #2 – My injured employee wasn’t all that productive before the injury so I’d rather not keep him on with light duty now that he is injured.  Don’t fall into this trap.  Dealing with non-productive employees is a human resource issue, not a workers compensation issue.  You should always deal with this type of problem through your HR department.  Also, a less productive employee is more likely to take a case through the long and costly workers compensation legal system.  Get them healthy and back to work first, and then deal with their lack of productivity.

Mistake #3 – I don’t think my employee is hurt as bad as he says, in fact I saw him out fishing last week.  This is an example where the insurance company you choose can help or hurt you.  You are often best served by a dedicated workers compensation company with a structured back to work program.   One of  the insurance companies that we use, Summit Insurance Group, has a back to work tool kit and structured back to work program to help you as an employer get your injured employees back to work and off the work comp rocking chair paycheck as quickly as possible.  This is not something you should tackle on your own and you need an insurance company that is dedicated to this process so that your premiums stay low in the future.

Mistake (Concern type)  #4 -  My employees doctor says she should stay at home but she just has a desk job.  You should work with your claim adjuster and your employee to make sure that the doctor has a clear understanding of the job requirements to see if the person really must be written out of work.  Constant and clear communications between you, the employee, the doctor and the claims department can help you resolve these issues and some job modifications may make it possible to get your employee back to work sooner.  Remember to get your employees job description to their physician as quickly as possible and ask for any medical restrictions that need to apply to any transitional duty.

Mistake #5  Losing touch with workers once they are injured increases the fear of a lawsuit.   This is true and many employers find themselves in a nether world where they are afraid to contact their injured employee and wanting to know what is going on with the injury.  This is why having a back to work program in place before the injury occurs is so important.  A good back to work program will encourage you to reach out to your injured employee and help you know what you can and can’t say and how to say it.  They even include greeting cards that you may want to send to let your injured employee know that you are thinking of them.

It is clear that having a plan for injured workers before they are hurt will help you make the transitions more smooth and over time will reduce your workers compensation costs tremendously.  You should choose an agent who understands workers compensation insurance well and can help you gain access to specialized workers compensation insurance companies with back to work plans, dedicated claims staff and even nurses on call, all of which will help you reduce downtime and out of work time for your employees.  Don’t just chase the lowest priced workers compensation rates, rather consider carefully what support you will have after a claim when choosing your workers compensation agent and company.

At Clinard Insuranc e Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping all kinds of  businesses with their workers compensation insurance needs.   Our specialization can help you not only find extremely low rates on your workers compensation insurance, but also will help you minimize claims and out of work time, thus saving you money over the long haul as well.  If you need help or have questions about your North Carolina Workers Compensation Insurance Policy, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from various sources, one of which is www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

If you have a garage liability insurance policy for your repair shop insurance, or for your used car dealer insurance program, then you know that your policy must be audited each year.  Garage liability insurance audits can be a huge hassle or they can be a quick and easy process.  Some of what determines that is up to you.  Here are a few tips to make your garage policy audits go as smoothly as possible.  Some of this information is based on audit requirements for Auto Owners Insurance Company garage policies and may not necessarily be part of every insurance company’s garage audit process.

Start with an accurate estimate.  You will have to estimate your payroll and number of employees when you first take out the policy.  Start out by making this an accurate estimate.  Estimating too high takes money out of your pocket and crimps cash flow now.  Estimate low makes you vulnerable to the audit trap and can hurt cash flow later.  Don’t forget that clerical employees are often required to be included in the total employee count.  Also, remember that active owners, partners or members are included in the total as one full time equivalent employee.

With the Auto Owners Premier Garage Policy, there are caps on the payroll basis for owners, officers, partners or members as well as for employees.  Your insurance company may or may not have caps on payroll so be sure to find out well in advance about this as it can limit your preparation time and may reduce your garage liability insurance costs in the long run.

Most garage policies will not charge for strictly clerical employees.  But they are also usually quite strict about the definition of clerical workers.  When they say clerical, they mean that employee only engages in clerical work.  Few garage operations have a strictly clerical person, but if you do, you don’t want to include them as an employee in the employee audit count and in the payroll count.

Know your categories of employees as defined by the garage policy and have those numbers ready for the auditor.   Category 1 employees are usually defined as owners, officers and members as well as salespersons, sales and service managers and anyone who operates vehicles on and off premises.  The payroll amount for this type of employee is usually capped and most of your payroll will fall into this category.   Category 2 employees are usually defined as all other employees.  Typically the payroll for this category will be very small or even zero.

By knowing what your insurance company needs from you at audit time, you should be able to reduce the time and costs of having your garage liability insurance audited each year.  At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping used car dealers and garage and repair and body shops with their insurance policies.  We write garage insurance for dealers as well as repair and body shops  in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia.  If we can help you with your garage insurance, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 and we will be glad to answer your questions.