Injured Employee At Work And How Employers Can Help In That Situation | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set standards that employers must adhere to to ensure workers’ safety. For this reason, a company is responsible for the well-being of its employees and should provide a safe working environment free of any hazards. Unfortunately, you can only reduce the chances of accidents happening, and whenever they do happen, you should be ready to help the injured party. Here are some ways that you can help an injured employee.

1. Get medical help

If your employee is injured, you should first assess the incident’s nature and seriousness. For minor cuts and scrapes, a simple office first aid kit is all you need. It is essential to keep a sizable first aid kit at the office for such emergencies. In case of serious accidents, you should call for emergency medical assistance while stabilizing the patient to prevent further injuries. Remember, failure to contact medical assistance not only risks the patient’s life by worsening their condition but is also a criminal offense.

2. File a police report 

This is one thing most employers avoid. In case of a severe workplace accident, the employer should report the issue to authorities even if the injured employees insist that they are fine. This is an obligation under the law.

You should also document the entire incident by taking pictures, videos, and writing down the event’s descriptions before they fade from your mind. Documentation helps the police during investigations and might be served as evidence when settling any personal injury claims.

3. Compensate your employees

If the accident happened due to negligence on your part, you are required by law to compensate the injured party for any physical, emotional, and financial damage that resulted from the accident.

The injured employee has a right to file a personal injury claim. If they do, it is prudent to discuss the issue and reach an amicable consensus as soon as possible, failure to which the request might turn into a lawsuit that will ruin your company’s reputation. It is advisable to consult with a qualified personal injury lawyer such as the PA Worker’s Compensation Lawyer to help you with the injury compensation process.

4. Give them the necessary support

You should support injured employees as they recover. If they can’t work, it is wise to provide them with a paid leave for the recovery duration. You can further organize a visit to the hospital with their colleagues and show them that they are not alone in their recovery. 

5. Console other employees

When employees hear that one of their co-workers got injured while at work, they might get anxious and feel unsafe. This affects their attitude and morale, reducing the company’s productivity in the long run. It would be best if you reassured them by putting in necessary measures to prevent such incidents.

6. Stay in touch with their doctor

Engaging with your injured employee’s doctor is advantageous both to the employee and to your company. The worker will witness your commitment towards their well-being and will probably look to reciprocate the energy afterward. You will also be able to follow up on their recovery process and determine the amount of time you will allow them to stay at home before reporting back to work. The business will benefit from knowing the expected downtime and adapting to the employee’s absence. What’s more, you will monitor the medical bills to ensure accuracy in the valuation of their compensation claim.

7. Give them lighter duties

After a severe injury, there is a chance the employee will not be in the right physical state to handle certain manual tasks. You can ensure they remain productive and don’t overexert themselves by assigning them lighter duties, even if temporarily. As their work capacity increases, ease them back into their initial responsibilities by slowly increasing their workload. A doctor can help you determine the kind and amount of work suitable for the recovering employee and how long it will take before their health and physical capacity is restored.

8. Keep them posted on work developments

If there are drastic changes at work that might impact the injured employee’s job description or work shift when they report back, it is best to ensure they get notified as soon as possible. Surprises can be extremely vexing, particularly for someone who just recovered from an injury. They can lower morale and take a toll on efficiency and productivity.

Keeping the recovering employee posted ensures they are mentally prepared and have the time to adjust their side schedule ahead of time. If you want to involve them in formal meetings, you can use conferencing tools such as zoom to ensure they contribute and get any major updates in real-time.

9. Send a get-well message

This is the easiest and cheapest thing to do, but an employer’s get-well message is something any employee will appreciate. You can do it on the phone, but it would be better if you did it the conventional way and mailed a physical note to their home address. Depending on the relationship you share with them, you can write a direct personal message or craft one on behalf of the company. Either way, the employee will feel missed and look forward to getting back to work. Additionally, it will eliminate any fears they may have about losing their job.

10. Get rid of workplace hazards

Most workplace injuries are products of preventable factors. While there is nothing you can do to reverse the event that led to the employee’s injury, there are ways you can express remorse and show what happened was entirely a mistake. For one, you can get rid of the hazard that caused the accident and perform a safety review to make the workplace safer. You can also provide your workforce with workplace safety training and set strict proactive measures to minimize the risk of similar accidents in the future.

Endnote

Owning a business comes with many responsibilities, and keeping employees safe tops the list. Accidents can happen unexpectedly, and your reaction to employee injuries dictates the long term outcome.

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