The transportation industry has gone to great lengths to improve and maintain good relations between managers and their drivers. The question is, what happens to these "good" relations when the employee has an accident, customer complaint, late delivery or an injury involving workman's comp lost time?
According to Bob Howell, Managing Partner, Howell & Associates, LLC., quite often, when there is a negative event with a driver, the relationship between the manager and driver quickly breaks down. Frequently, there is anger on both sides and the relationship actually gets worse.
Manager training for workman's comp helps the manager ratchet down the drama and emotion.
Work Place Issues Lead to Suspicion
Anger, doubt and suspicion most often come into play with claims involving lost time. The manager may have noticed that the lost-time employee had some negative workplace issues prior to their lost time. That can make the manager immediately suspicious about the employee and their claim. This kind of doubt and suspicion doesn't equate to a positive relationship between the manager and their employee!
Workers' Comp Whitepaper
Download the whitepaper from Bob Howell and PRO-TREAD to learn how most fleets deal with workers' comp issues, and why it's critical to train managers and executives.
The problem is, when it comes to lost time and workers' comp claims, a third party is involved: a doctor. The employee’s doctor is very interested in the relationship between their patient and their manager. If the relationship is poor, doctors will frequently extend lost time. If the relationship is good, you’ll get more cooperation from doctors for transitional duty or a return-to-work plan. That leads to minimal lost time and immediate reductions in workers' compensation costs.
Manager Training for Workman's Comp
Howell worked with Instructional Technologies to build three twenty-minute interactive courses that give managers the skills and the inclination to always maintain a positive relationship with their lost-time employees. For that matter, the skills translate to any negative circumstance involving an employee.
Those who adopt the philosophy of this manager training for workman's comp will stand out with minimal lost time, fewer lost-time claims and improved morale. The managers who don't adopt the philosophy of the trainings will also stand out with continued high costs.
Howell is optimistic that most managers and upper-level executives will make the necessary changes because it is easy for them, makes sense and they will see immediate results.
