Keys to protecting your business, part 2

Trained supervisors and the right industrial clinic help meet human resource regulations.

By AUDRIANNE ADAMS LEE
Special to the Register

In Part I last week we identified two key elements that small business owners should implement to protect themselves and their businesses from the maze of federal and state employment regulations – job descriptions and an employee handbook

This week, we add two more key elements to the business owner's "toolbox" – training your supervisors and identifying an industrial clinic.

Article Submitted By: Attorney Shannon M. Jenkins

Supervisor training

Do any of these problems sound familiar to you? Low profit, employee indifference, poor quality, excessive turnover or absenteeism, restricted output and resistance to change. These problems can be traced back to one common denominator: untrained first-line supervisors.

Risk is inherent in running a business. So who do you count on to manage employment-related risks facing your business? Your supervisors. Supervisors can be your first line of defense against claims of harassment, discrimination and retaliation. Or they can be your biggest risk factor.

Your supervisors may, and probably are, utilizing employment practices that will put your company at risk. Whether it is a question they ask during the interview process, comments about a worker's attire, or simply firing an employee "incorrectly," your supervisors can be putting your company at risk for some unnecessary lawsuits.

By improving the skills, knowledge and abilities of your supervisors, everything these supervisors control will improve. Proper supervisory training pays off in big bucks and improved results, from increased efficiency, on-time workloads, decreases in turnover and absenteeism, and lowered direct variances losses/costs such as make-up work, overtime pay, etc.

The key to your business success is the productivity of your employees. The key to employee productivity is their perception and relationship with their immediate supervisor. Invest in training your supervisors and managers and it will pay off.

Choose an industrial clinic

At a time when employers are being hard hit by spiraling medical and workers' compensation costs, it is critical that employers select an industrial rehabilitation clinic that provides comprehensive cost-effective treatment and services to facilitate the injured worker's early — and successful — return to the workplace. If early intervention is not achieved or is ineffective, employee motivation may suffer, causing a general tendency to remain off work.

When selecting an industrial clinic to treat your employees, companies should consider:

• Choosing experienced providers who are knowledgeable about the workers' compensation process, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), employment laws, and OSHA record-keeping guidelines.
• The clinic should allow prompt provider response to an employer's questions along with timely communication including weekly progress notes to claims adjusters, case managers and health/safety staff.
• The employer should contact references that the providers have done business with in the areas of work injury management and prevention, and case resolution services.
• Visit the clinic and make sure it is a clean and safe location for your employees. If you would not feel comfortable getting medical attention at the clinic, neither will your employees.
• If you use a clinic for any drug or alcohol testing, make sure all personnel are properly certified per DOT training standard.

It is important to have employees go to their industrial clinic on the day of injury not only to provide quick and caring medical treatment but because the labor code limits employers to only 30 days of medical control. After that time, the employee can take the initiative and control his medical treatment by selecting a health care provider of his choosing. By effectively managing the medical control period, the employer can better manage their cases and keep costs down.

Under the recent California Workers' Compensation Reform Act, a provision has been added to provide the employer with an opportunity to maintain the control of medical treatment throughout the life cycle of a claim. This continuous-medical-control right is available for those employers that establish a network of medical providers. If, however, the employer fails to establish a medical provider network (MPN), then the employer is limited to the medical control period of 30 days.

For this reason, employers should be aggressive about designing a network of medical providers so they can take advantage of this new provision. Your workers' compensation insurance provider will assist you in establishing an MPN.