Return to Work 101: Supervisors & Managers Do They Help or Hurt Your Program?
Margaret Spence, CWC, RMPE
April 28, 2008
This article is not intended to blame supervisors; it is a reality check for employers. Injury management is a team approach – before you can implement an effective return to work program, you have to evaluate all members of your team to determine deficiencies and find ways to make proactive improvements. Everything starts with your supervisors and managers.
Supervisors who are not versed in workers´ compensation laws are a recipe for disaster, especially when coupled with company expectations and the task of managing injured employees. Supervisors are a critical piece of the return-to-work puzzle. They must understand their role in the process and they must become a contributing member of your injury management team.
As I work with companies to manage their programs, I find that untrained supervisors can be a single source of creating litigated issues. For example, if a supervisor sends an injured employee home without notifying the person managing the claim, he or she may have opened the door for lost wage (Indemnity) payments or litigation over unpaid benefits. In some instances, supervisors refuse to be cooperative participants in the return-to-work process because they do not want to accept an injured employee who can not contribute to their department´s production or productivity goals. This can create Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations and workers´ compensation litigation.
Best Practices for Supervisors:
Get supervisors involved in the planning and implementation of your program. Before attempting to roll out a comprehensive return-to-work program, you should have a meeting with your supervisors. Emphasize the cost of keeping injured employees off work and quantify the fact that workers´ compensation cost can prevent the company from being successful or financially sound.
Do not allow supervisors to sabotage your return to work efforts. Just as we expect injured employees to cooperate and return to work – you should expect and demand that your supervisors cooperate and buy into the fact that injured employees can be productive members of their department or team.
Help your supervisors understand that maintaining a cohesive, evenhanded policy for all employees is critical. Strongly discourage any negative treatment of injured employees both from your supervisors and from fellow employees. Make this a policy—with disciplinary consequences if not followed.
Understanding your supervisor´s point of view is also important; remember they are pressured to run their departments efficiently even if they are under staffed. When injured employees return to work do not make the mistake of overlooking violations because the employee is in the midst of a work-related injury. Doing so sets a bad example for other employee´s, lowers morale within the company and feeds into your supervisors´ view of injured employees.
Show your supervisors how to communicate and document work related issues. If you have to write up an employee for a disciplinary violation make sure that your supervisors document the violation thoroughly and immediately. Be careful not to start enforcing rules because or only after an employee is injured. Injured workers must be treated like anyone else in the workplace.
Employers must invest in training for their supervisors and managers. Last week, I attended a workers´ compensation workshop hosted by a local law firm. As I looked around the room I recognized many HR Directors, Safety Professionals and Directors of Operations, the one group that was missing – Line Supervisors and Managers. Unfortunately, because they are charged with the day to day task of insuring that their departments operate efficiently and they are often overlooked when employees are being selected to attend training programs. This is a critical mistake that can be corrected by developing in-house training programs.
Finally, remember that supervisors are critical to making any return-to-work program successful. At a minimum supervisors and managers should have a thorough understanding of workers´ compensation, human resources and safety requirements. Communication, documentation, cooperation and training are essential for supervisors as they manage employees – especially injured employees.
Next Edition – Return to Work 101: Creating a Written Return to Work Program
Supervisors who are not versed in workers´ compensation laws are a recipe for disaster, especially when coupled with company expectations and the task of managing injured employees. Supervisors are a critical piece of the return-to-work puzzle. They must understand their role in the process and they must become a contributing member of your injury management team.
As I work with companies to manage their programs, I find that untrained supervisors can be a single source of creating litigated issues. For example, if a supervisor sends an injured employee home without notifying the person managing the claim, he or she may have opened the door for lost wage (Indemnity) payments or litigation over unpaid benefits. In some instances, supervisors refuse to be cooperative participants in the return-to-work process because they do not want to accept an injured employee who can not contribute to their department´s production or productivity goals. This can create Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations and workers´ compensation litigation.
Best Practices for Supervisors:
Get supervisors involved in the planning and implementation of your program. Before attempting to roll out a comprehensive return-to-work program, you should have a meeting with your supervisors. Emphasize the cost of keeping injured employees off work and quantify the fact that workers´ compensation cost can prevent the company from being successful or financially sound.
Do not allow supervisors to sabotage your return to work efforts. Just as we expect injured employees to cooperate and return to work – you should expect and demand that your supervisors cooperate and buy into the fact that injured employees can be productive members of their department or team.
Help your supervisors understand that maintaining a cohesive, evenhanded policy for all employees is critical. Strongly discourage any negative treatment of injured employees both from your supervisors and from fellow employees. Make this a policy—with disciplinary consequences if not followed.
Understanding your supervisor´s point of view is also important; remember they are pressured to run their departments efficiently even if they are under staffed. When injured employees return to work do not make the mistake of overlooking violations because the employee is in the midst of a work-related injury. Doing so sets a bad example for other employee´s, lowers morale within the company and feeds into your supervisors´ view of injured employees.
Show your supervisors how to communicate and document work related issues. If you have to write up an employee for a disciplinary violation make sure that your supervisors document the violation thoroughly and immediately. Be careful not to start enforcing rules because or only after an employee is injured. Injured workers must be treated like anyone else in the workplace.
Employers must invest in training for their supervisors and managers. Last week, I attended a workers´ compensation workshop hosted by a local law firm. As I looked around the room I recognized many HR Directors, Safety Professionals and Directors of Operations, the one group that was missing – Line Supervisors and Managers. Unfortunately, because they are charged with the day to day task of insuring that their departments operate efficiently and they are often overlooked when employees are being selected to attend training programs. This is a critical mistake that can be corrected by developing in-house training programs.
Finally, remember that supervisors are critical to making any return-to-work program successful. At a minimum supervisors and managers should have a thorough understanding of workers´ compensation, human resources and safety requirements. Communication, documentation, cooperation and training are essential for supervisors as they manage employees – especially injured employees.
Next Edition – Return to Work 101: Creating a Written Return to Work Program