(Transcribed from Video at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfJpRJg2P6hIvx7JAQsRAxQ)
Health and safety is a huge area. There’s industrial hygiene, there’s auditing, there’s program building, there’s also claims management. Effective claims management should be part and parcel of any effective health and safety program.
You should have a modified work program where injured workers can be work hardened and be able to return to their jobs. The studies have shown the longer workers are away from work and not working, the harder it is to get them back into a capacity where they work and feel part of the culture.
Claims management looks at claims to WCB, whether they’re fair and equitable to all parties, the worker, the employer, the client. And basically effective claims management ensures as an employer that it’s cost effective and you’re putting injured workers back to work where they need to be in the thick of things, but it won’t aggravate their injury and they do meaningful work.
You don’t want to be like the claims management company that had somebody burned over 90% of their body and wanted them to lick stamps on envelopes. That’s not meaningful work, and if you’re burned on 90% of your body I think you’re entitled to rest.
Meaningful work is somebody that’s injured returning to work. They can work on safety data sheet management, they can work on developing safe work procedures, assisting the health and safety committee. There’s a myriad of things they can do which is meaningful to the worker and to the employer because it makes a difference and it’s a win-win, both parties win. And that’s what effective claims management is, where you manage a claim effectively so the worker returns to work and in a position where their injury’s not aggravated and they feel part of the culture and they feel that they belong.
Barb Semeniuk is a veteran Safety Auditor and Worker Advocate. Her experience and diligence save companies dollars, and make workers safer while on the job.