Achieving an early recovery for an injured worker may not always be possible or simple. Having a worker back in the workplace, even on modified duties or reduced hours, is not only good for the business but also for the worker.
Recovering At Work – Having a worker recover from a workplace injury at work is beneficial for a business as they get to retain the worker’s skills and experience. This helps to reduce the costs usually associated with hiring and training a replacement worker. An added financial benefit is this will help minimise the cost of the claim and therefore the resulting increases to the business’ workers compensation premium.
An important non-financial benefit of an injured worker recovering at work is the social contact with co-workers has been shown in many instances to boost the injured workers recovery and accelerate their recovery time. Research also been states the longer a worker remains absent from their place of work due to a workplace injury, the less likely they will return to work.
There are numerous reasons why recovery at work is an important part of the return to work process and we recommend whenever possible businesses develop suitable duties that allow an injured worker to recover at work.
Here are three tips for employers to assist them in helping their injured workers to recover at work:
- Regularly touching base with the injured worker once they have returned to the workplace. By catching up with the injured worker regularly you can see how they are going and hopefully resolve any issues that the worker flags before they become big issues
- Keep the injured worker’s co-workers in the loop in relation to what is happening to stop them from jumping to conclusions that the injured worker is getting special treatment or is not pulling their weight
- Consider assigning the injured worker a workplace buddy to support them in their recovery at work. This may further boost the worker’s confidence by acting as a safety net and have a positive impact on their recovery
If you need any assistance in relation to planning or helping an injured worker recover at work, please contact our team to get help.