For the Employer

The Bottom Line

Managers need to understand the ramifications of poor workplace injury management on the organisation and on their employees. (Read more.....)

Good management is one component of the overall organisational culture. It has a direct and significant impact on employees' health and well being, on group morale and it makes a significant positive impact on 'bottom line' financial results.

Workplace disability and consequent work absence is expensive. In 2000 United States estimates were close to $700,000 per year per 100 people. Financial costs include direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs

Costs that are easy to measure such as:        

Indirect costs

Supervisors manage return to work issues. Supervisors who are not trained indicate they experience frustration, lack of confidence and have poorer outcomes.

When supervisors allow their frustrations to be felt by the employee, return to work is less successful. When goodwill and partnership is missing, supervisors spend more time on trying to increase work hours, identify and deal with the issue of transitional or modified duties, and the many other problems that arise.

Supervisors report problems with:

The workplace attitude and approach has a major impact on return to work outcomes. When the workplace is 'laisse-faire' about work injury management, the employee will often follow suit. A lax attitude reduces discretionary effort on the part of the employee, and this influences the next person with a health problem.

Poor management of people with work-related health problems reduces morale generally. It influences employees approaches to other areas; sickness absence, productivity levels, taking on extra work such as overtime and quality.

When a worker has an injury their expectations will be influenced by what has happened to others. An employee at work on modified duties before knee surgery, who returns to modified duties ten days after surgery will influence the next person to be back at work within a short time. On the other hand, a person with the same knee condition off work for six weeks before and two months after surgery will have the opposite effect on the return to work of others in the workplace.

Customers are affected by work injuries. The impact is greater in smaller workplaces, where an employee's work absence may have a greater effect. In smaller workplaces people may have direct connections with customers and their absence can reduce communication flows, quality control and negatively impact customer service.

Reduced staffing results in co-workers taking extra workloads, as a result errors and reduced customer service can occur.

The organisation's reputation can be damaged by news of major injuries, or by their reputation for how they look after staff once an injury has occurred.