The following was posted in “DePaolo’s Work Comp World” blog. David DePaolo is the President and CEO of Workcompcentral, of which I have been a very satisfied subscriber for years. In response to David’s question, we have hundreds of fast food members in the United Restaurants of New York Workers’ Compensation Safety Group #556, underwritten by NYSIF. It’s our experience that a “Culture of Caring” is effective in improving safety in a fast food business, despite high turnover. We have seen franchises dramatically improve safety by adopting a culture of caring.
“Does a “Culture of Caring” Have A Place in High Turnover Businesses?
Posted: 29 Sep 2011 04:50 AM PDT
The California Workers’ Compensation and Risk Management conference that began on Monday and ended on Wednesday in Dana Point, California, had many sessions about claim management from various levels – macro to micro.
The overall theme in each of these claims management sessions was communication: early and frequent communication with the injured worker and the relay of that information to various sources tasked with management of the claim.
While most of the presentations on communication focused on gathering and timely dissemination of information, one aspect that was lightly touched on and which I think makes a bigger difference in claims management is that the communications with the injured worker reflect a “culture of caring.”
The “culture of caring” was coined by author and New York broker Adam Friedlander in his book “How to Save Big on Workers’ Compensation” (which I reviewed in an earlier blog post).
Friedlander argues that, “If you need to get an employee back to work, you need to take care of that with the employee by the culture you establish and by the follow-up you do that shows you want the employee back.”
Early return to work is almost universally acknowledged as the single biggest factor in controlling claim costs.
Friedlander’s axiom may not be entirely applicable to a business with traditionally high employee turnover, such as a fast food business that relies on low wage, young labor“.
