Having an injured employee can be hard on an employer, you are one employee down, productivity and quality may suffer, you have lost skills and experience and trying to find and supervise a temporary replacement can be time consuming and difficult. Having a system in place to manage injured staff, hopefully returning them to work sooner than expected will mean you save time, minimise disruption to your business and retain valued staff and their knowledge onsite. Outlined below is a six stage guide for managing your employee injures.
The aim of the six stage guide
An employee, by returning to work, rather than sitting at home, gets closer to full pay (remember, their weekly compensation is less 20% of their full pay), is occupied, back with their work mates and on their way to a faster recovery. The six stages below have been designed so you can:
- plan how to manage injuries before they happen
- plan how you will manage the effects on your business
- gain greater control over your employee’s injury situation and help limit the costs associated with their injuries
- assist with your employee’s recovery.
To get an overview of what is involved in the six stages, check out the Return to Work checklist (DOC46K) and the Return to Work flowchart (DOC 72K).
Note:
To access all the resources mentioned on this page either to make up an injury information pack for your industry or just view, see Injury management resources for industry.
Stage 1: Prior to an injury
- Have a plan in place for when an injury occurs.
- When a new employee starts working for you go over the procedure for when an injury occurs, setting your expectations. (Use the Workplace Induction Checklist (DOC 50K) as a guide.)
- Ensure there is an early reporting system in place for any muscular discomfort, pain or injury and respond to any early reports – tackling these issues early can help prevent injury related absences. (Use the Accident / incident / Early reporting DOC 97K.)
- Prepare injury information packs about the workplace for employees’ to take to the Doctor when they are injured at work. Include in this pack a letter to the Doctor supported by a written consent from (PDF 20K) your employee permitting you to talk to the Doctor about their injuries. Provide information in this pack on the alternative duties that your injured employee could do in the workplace.
Stage 2: What to do at the time of injury
Workplace injury
- With a workplace injury, provide treatment either through first aid, Doctor, Medical Centre or in an emergency, an ambulance.
- Make sure the manager, supervisor or foreman knows about the incident.
- Check that the incident is reported, investigated and that you have addressed the cause of the accident to prevent it from occurring again.
- Serious harm injuries need to be reported to the Department of Labour. For a definition of serious harm and what to do if a serious harm injury occurs see Notification of serious harm and accidents on the Department of Labour’s website.
- Accompany the injured employee to the Doctor yourself, or have the supervisor, manager or foreman do this. Let the Doctor know you are available to discuss any aspect of the injured employee’s job.
- What are the benefits of providing information and accompanying my staff to the Doctor? You are the expert in what happens in your workplace. By providing information in written form (and included in your injury pack) to the Doctor, as well as being on hand to answer any queries, allows the Doctor to make an informed decision about when an employee can return to work.
Other injuries
An employee unable to do their proper tasks as a result of injury outside of work should still take their injury information pack to the Doctor as this includes all the necessary information a Doctor might need, eg information about your workplace and the alternative duties available for your employee if possible.
Note:
It may be that you need to fax the injury information pack through to the Doctor after your employee’s visit, or have your employee take it when they next visit.
Stage 3: Early contact with the injured employee
- Whether an employee is off with a work or non work injury, call them as soon as practicable to see how they are. During the phone call:
- be supportive by asking what you can do to help them. (Pay and job security is always a concern so talk to your employee about their pay and job – see Stage 4 below).
- ask them what they think they are able to do in the workplace. Reassure them that they don’t need to be 100%, that there are alternative duties available. Discuss what obstacles, if any, might stop them coming back to work.
- Make sure you get a copy of any medical certificates. Has this been done? What does it say? Make sure medical certificates are stored in a secure location. (See ACC1719 Helping employees back to work: Medical certificates (PDF 545K))
Stage 4: Ensure your employee is paid
- As an employer you pay the first week of a work injury at 80% of your employee’s normal weekly earnings. If it is a non work related injury then the employee can take sick leave or annual leave depending on what is available. From day eight onwards ACC pays weekly compensation at 80% of the employee’s weekly earnings.
- Find out how long the employee is likely to be away from the workplace. If it is more than seven days weekly compensation will be involved (which means earnings details will be required – see Completing the employer earnings certificate (ACC3) fact sheet (PDF 635K) for guidance).
- Supporting an employee to return to work, even if only for a couple of hours, may help them receive closer to 100% pay rather than the 80% from weekly compensation. Discuss this with your employee’s case owner.
- The employee will recover faster at work and is less likely to make changes to their lifestyle which can affect their ability to return to their pre-injury employment.
Stage 5: Communicate with those involved
- Ask your employee for their ACC case owner details. If your employee is unsure who their case owner is you can find out for them by calling us directly on 0800101996 (you’ll be asked to provide your employee’s full name and date of birth).
- Once you have the employee’s ACC case owner details, call them to discuss any concerns you may have about your employee, eg their job being at risk, performance issues or other barriers which might stop them from returning to work such as transport problems.
- During the same phone call give the ACC case owner information about the job and what other alternative duties are available in the workplace.
- If you require support to help an employee return to work, contact their ACC case owner and discuss the options. Clinical support may be provided through an occupational therapist/physiotherapist/occupational health nurse that can visit your work site to help assist your injured employee return to work via the Stay at Work service.
- Speak to the Doctor if you are unsure of the employee’s restrictions on their medical certificate or if you require more details to help provide a safe environment for your employee. Your injured employee’s written consent (mentioned in Stage 1 above) supports this communication.
- Stay in contact with your employee on a regular basis, invite them in for morning breaks, any social events or meetings, as this helps them stay in touch with their colleagues and the business.
Stage 6: Plan, monitor and review the return to work
- Think about what the injured employee can do before they return to work, refer to the alternative duties list to assist. You should also ask them what they think they can do.
- When the injured employee does return, sit down with them, their supervisor/manager/foreman and using the Return to work plan and progress report (DOC 76K) work out a plan. All agree on this, then date and sign it.
- A Return to Work plan may be developed through the Stay at Work provider. This is intended to support and enable an injured worker to recover safely whilst rebuilding their work capability. As the employer you will be involved in this plan.
- Monitor the employee daily and have weekly catch ups initially to make sure everything is progressing as planned.
- If the return to work is not working as planned it can be changed, just do it together with the original signatories
- Store any return to work plans in a secure location with the employee’s personal details.
Injury management resources for industry
Get injury management resources specific to your industry by choosing from the list below - if your industry is not listed then access the general injury management resources.