Running a business is no easy thing. There are so many responsibilities to take care of and duties to attend to. It gets even harder when you have employees to manage. As an employer, when one of your staff members gets injured while on the job, it’s your responsibility to ensure that they get the care and compensation they deserve. Well, you can never tell when such an injury can happen, and how much it can cost your company in damages, which makes it important to have an insurance policy that protects you and your employees from such.
With so many workplace hazards virtually lurking in every corner, knowing the procedures to follow after a workplace-related injury will not only help to protect your staff but will go a long way to safeguarding your credibility. But sadly, employee safety and health issues are among the issues often put on the backburner by employers. However, this doesn’t have to be the case for your business.
While the specifics of employee rights after a workplace injury can vary from state to state, the general responsibilities of an employer apply across the board. Whether it’s an innocuous accident or a serious one that leads to severe injuries, how an employer handles the situation can make a huge difference in a work-related injury case. Without further ado, below are some reasons why employers need to address workplace injury cases.
1. Risk Assessment
As an employer, do not wait until an employee is injured while working on your business premises to make certain changes. Risk assessment should be at the top of an employer’s priorities. This helps to reduce the risk of accidents, as well as identifying hazards and taking the necessary precautions. Below are things you can do to prevent accidents from happening at the workplace:
- Display hazard
- Provide a system for employees to report or highlight hazards
- Provide training to new staff
- Provide employees with protective gear
If an employee has been injured on the job, they have the right to sue their boss, especially if they severally highlighted and reported potential hazards but no step was taken to prevent the accident from happening. According to Tim Tate from the Tate Law Offices, such employees deserve compensation for their pain and suffering, as well as any costs they might have incurred in seeking treatment and any income they might have lost as a result of the accident. All such an employee needs to do is work with an experienced injury attorney to help them file a worker’s compensation or personal injury claim, which brings us to the next important point.
2. To Prevent Litigation
Now, just because you’re good to your employees, it doesn’t mean that your employees cannot file a lawsuit against you. You’ll be surprised to know of the many employment laws you may have already broken over time, even though personal injury cases are an employer’s worst nightmare. But truth be told, personal injury lawsuits are quite preventable and manageable for that matter. Before things get out of hand and you find yourself in a tight spot, ensure that your employees are insured using workers’ compensation insurance. The workers’ compensation insurance serves two purposes, which include:
- Compensating injured employees for lost income when they are out of work due to injuries
- Protecting employers against lawsuits from workers injured while on the job
As an employer, it’s important to show concern and maintain a good employee-employer relationship when your employees are injured while working. More often than not, litigations are a reflection of feeling neglected and ignored. If you don’t take the time to attend to an injured employee, you can rest assured that an injury attorney will!
3. It’s An Employee’s Right
It’s the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the employees are provided with safe working conditions. But let’s face it, we are not living in a utopian society, workplace accidents do happen. However, how an employer deals with the situation matters a lot. Of course, the first thing, which also happens to be a wise decision, is to ensure that the employee receives immediate medical attention after a work-related injury. This situation needs to be handled in a timely and professional manner. After treatment, the employer and employee need to sit down and discuss the way forward. This means:
- Reaching a sustainable agreement
- The employer should file the necessary paperwork
- The employer should follow up with the injured employee
- The employer needs to take the necessary measures to prevent future injuries from happening
Finally, as an employer, you want to ensure that you are well prepared even for the worst-case scenario. It allows you to better respond to injuries at your workplace. You also need to have your employee’s best interests at heart because, well, you can only accomplish so much and you need them to thrive. Additionally, you don’t need to have your issues settled in court. You may come into a sustainable agreement after your employee has been injured at work. This can work to both your interests without having to waste time and resources.