Transitional Duty Return to Work program sound complex? Think you’d never have the need or knowledge to implement one? Truth be told, a Return to Work program is not as complicated as the name sounds and simply means getting injured employees back to work safely and successfully so everyone wins.
Benefits of RTW Plans
Having a Return to Work plan in place is the easiest and most cost-effective way to return an employee to the workplace. A Return to Work program also attacks indirect costs and offers many other benefits for your organization. It allows employees to return to work, within their restrictions, as soon as it is medically safe and provides your business with a productive employee. With your employees back to work you can:
• Increase employee morale: If employees feel they are a valuable resource, they will want to return to their regular jobs as soon as medically possible.
• Maintain productivity: Although they may not be able to do their regular jobs, an early return to work gets employees back in the workplace and paves the path to their regular jobs.
• Reduce employee turnover: Statistics show that the longer employees are off work the less likely they are to return. When employees return to work on transitional duty, they remain productive employees, active in the workforce and reduce the employer’s need to hire a replacement.
• Reduce workers compensation costs: Early return to work improves overall claims outcomes through reduced lost-time and medical payouts. A reduction in claims costs positively impacts both your company’s experience modifier (e-mod) and loss ratio, which in turn positively affect your workers compensation premium.
• Reduce indirect costs: Indirect costs are often four to five times higher than the direct costs of a claim and aren’t covered by workers compensation insurance. Lost production, reduced customer satisfaction, overtime, new hires or temporary staffing, employee training, time for OSHA inspections, and investigation of an injury or accident can significantly impact your business’ success.
• Reduce fraud and noncompliance: When injured employees are not allowed to return to work, they lose touch with the work force and may develop habits that are not conducive to improving their medical condition. If injured employees are working, temptation to conduct fraudulent activities is largely reduced.
Steps You Can Take Today
A complete Return to Work program can take time to develop, but there are a couple of very simple steps you can take today.
• Decide to implement a Return to Work plan. If protecting your employees and your business is important to you, commit to a Return to Work plan.
• Get help. Designate someone in your organization to be responsible for developing the plan. Then, watch for more information here on MEM’s Web site on the steps to creating an effective plan.
Ready for more right now? Contact your MEM Loss Prevention Consultant or Field Services Manager at custsrv@mem-ins.com or 1.800.442.0593.