Your Employee Is Injured – What Next?

There are many unfortunate and difficult situations that business leaders deal with each day. It might be that a brand new and exciting brand has opened up directly across the street, adding further competition to your doorstep. Perhaps your social media manager accidentally sent out a poorly-worded tweet, and now you’re dealing with the communications blowback. Sometimes, it’s easy to use copyrighted materials in our promotional material without realizing, and now the owner of said content can quote their price.

However, nothing is as terrible as seeing someone injured on your premises. This is a terrible outcome, but unfortunately, not impossible even with stringent safety procedures. All systems can have weak points, and a failure here is the worst outcome of that.

However, this is not a time for self-pity, but of proactive aid and assistance. It’s also important to make sure our employees can exercise their rights fully, and that as a business, we respect that. Moreover, we need to make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated. In this post, we’ll discuss this and more:

Provide Immediate Assistance & Assess The Situation

Of course, the most important thing to do is to provide immediate assistance. If a life can be saved or an injury limited, then that supersedes any documentation that comes later, any court case that might develop, or any failure that might come to light regarding your system processes. In other words, rendering assistance is not a political act nor should you wait for approval from your insurance company, first aid assistance is essential, as is escalating the issue correctly.

Caregiving is essential, and throwing your resources into that is essential. Calling emergency services, evacuating public visitors from your building where necessary, reaching out to their emergency contacts, and following the guidance of medical professionals are essential.

Report & Document

After the aggrieved individual is sent off to receive appropriate healthcare, it’s important to document all evidence related to the incident. Formatting this into an essential report of exactly what happened, what failings were responsible for the issue, and those suspected of being at fault (for instance, if a site manager hadn’t replaced faulty safety equipment) is key.

A transparent document that helps put everything together for your legal professionals and insurance providers is essential. This report should showcase the date, time, location, and description of what happened, as well as witness statements, or evidentiary material such as CCTV footage where appropriate to include. On top of that, it should showcase any First-Aid measures undertaken, and the report from the medical examiner.

Review & Implement Stringent Safety Measures

Every safety issue is an opportunity for further protection, and it’s important to work on those after a full, renewed risk assessment. So for example, you might implement stronger handrails alongside your staircases, or improve your evacuation proceedings, or even restore the lighting in your warehouse.

Safety measures could also mean implementing accountability efforts, such as a sign-in and sign-out sheet or keycard access for certain rooms of the building, especially those which store sensitive materials. If there’s been a security failure leading to a staff member being placed in harm’s way, that should be worked on in kind.

Updating the policies, infrastructure, and site-wide training involved with these procedures is key. Don’t let the same issue happen again, and don’t allow similar issues to happen in another area. This is where deep collaboration with your staff is important to consider. For example, if your warehouse staff feel as though they’re overworked and unable to properly keep up with demand, then that must be considered, shift patterns must be reviewed, and perhaps even hiring additional professionals is key.

 As such, safety measures can be diverse, contributive, and always holistic. Measuring their impact and testing them appropriately is always a relevant approach to take.

Assist With All Worker’s Compensation Inquiries

Leveraging your worker’s compensation payouts is essential because your staff member is entitled to have their medical bills paid if they work with you under contract. Providing a full, quick and remedial report can help your employee can access that, and for your insurance to correctly pay out to your employee.

Of course, how your company conducts itself here will be a distinct message to other employees you’re responsible for, and so it’s important to be fully co-operative with the insurance carrier, medical personnel, and to offer any information, documentation, and proactive advocacy where appropriate, even if you believe your employee is going to seek legal counsel for wrongdoing at your firm – they are still entitled to exercise their rights, and you need to offer those provisions as part of the contract.

Develop a Careful Return-To-Work Plan

It’s good to develop a careful and proactive return-to-work plan as part of your continued relationship with your employee. Of course, they may decide to no longer work with your firm, or they may wish to come back as soon as possible. Now, it’s important for them to rely on the approval of their medical practitioner, and for you to validate that as appropriate.

It’s also good to provide resources for returning to work after an injury, as this helps the employee know what to expect, what’s required of them, and how to walk before they can run. In some cases, you may even need to offer certain privileges that you might not offer other employees for the time being. A staggered back to work with part-time day shifts, for instance, or remote working possibilities as they go through further occupational therapy.

On top of that, making sure you discuss your mutual goals for continued employment is important. They may wish to transfer to a different department if possible, to work at another premises of yours, or to end their contract by a certain period. If you can both remain on the same page, then you’ll feel more comfortable about the outcome. This way, both parties will have conducted themselves professionally, despite the tough initial circumstances.

With this advice, you’ll be sure to act in the best possible manner despite a tough, unwanted outcome such as staff injury.