How Much Does Injury Management Cost an Organization?

For most businesses, the direct costs are easy to measure. Employee’s wages and workers’ compensation experience rating assessments are clear and easily calculated.

Workers’ compensation charges an organization a set rate reflecting its industry’s history of work-related claims plus its own claim cost history. The direct costs associated with an employee’s injury at work may include:

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  • Wage Loss

  • Pensions or Annuities

  • Insurance Administration Fees

  • Health Care & Medical Costs

  • Rehabilitation Costs

Indirect and Hidden Costs

But there are other indirect or hidden costs related to injury that are important to consider. These are challenging to measure as they are more dependent on individual circumstances and organizational resources:

  • The loss of quality and quantity in work productivity when a knowledgeable worker is off work with an injury or illness

  • Management time and loss of supervisor and/or manager productivity due to managing the absent employee

  • Costs incurred when training an existing or new worker to perform the injured worker’s job

  • Overtime costs due to the work team working with a lower complement of workers

  • Overtime costs or unplanned wages for replacement workers

  • Increased demands on both supervisors and co-workers

  • Possible increased time for Human Resources to meet the administrative requirements of an injury claim

  • Pain and suffering of the injured worker

  • Social costs for the injured worker – loss of identity (associated with their job title) and strained occupational bond (temporary loss of identity as a worker of that organization)

Having an injury management program in your workplace will have a positive impact not only on your bottom line but it also demonstrates to your workforce that you are invested in their recovery and well being.

3 Steps: Risk Management

Managing worker injury and illness is a cornerstone of risk management. When any organization tries to contain risks to employees’ health and safety, the effort has three aims:

Resources

AgSafe provides a variety of resources to help implement Return to Work programs.

Our Regional Safety Consultants, and Advisors are available to help our members build an effective, workplace specific Return to Work program.

Resources

Documents, links, and other available resources to assist with “Return to Work” programs.

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FAQs

Frequently asked questions related to “Return to Work” programs, and how to build one for your company.

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Ask the Expert

Any questions that are not addressed in our RTW FAQs, can be asked directly to our “Return to Work” expert.

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