Preventing workplace injuries and claims

When looking at workplace injury prevention, I often see a gap between the work done to prevent injury in the first place and the treatment provided once an injury has turned into a WorkCover claim. The most effective injury prevention processes are designed to not only prevent injury from occurring but to also reduce the likelihood of a WorkCover claim occurring. The reality is that even in the best designed workplaces, people injure themselves and many injuries come about after a period of pain or soreness.

This piece focuses on two areas most companies need to improve to better prevent injuries and to minimise the likelihood that an injury results in lost time injury or a WorkCover claim. Many studies have been done on designing a safe environment but less work is carried out on ensuring workers are fit for their tasks. Soft Tissue Centre provides detailed pre-employment assessments focused specifically on finding out whether prospective employees are physically capable of carrying out the specific job roles they are being asked to do.

The relevant nature of these assessments lead us to fail around one in two - a small headache for operations but it avoids a severe migraine when it comes to the costs and resources involved in hiring someone who is likely to have an injury doing what you ask them to do. The assessment results provide a powerful decision-making aid when looking at whether someone is genuinely capable of what they are being hired for or whether different roles/arrangements may need to be established should the company choose to hire the person.

The second area often overlooked is to prevent a minor niggle developing into a major injury. This is particularly true of non-work injuries where employees may be discouraged from reporting a small pain that may have been caused outside the working environment, only for it to be aggravated during the course of work activities.

Companies taking a narrow view that if it is a non-work injury then they ‘must not go near work’ for fear of a WorkCover claim are missing an opportunity. By taking the enlightened approach of treating all niggles/injuries, companies can benefit from improved employee morale, a stronger audit trail and far less chance of a claim from work aggravating an existing injury.

Providing effective treatment to all employee niggles may seem like a large expense, particularly in comparison to various ‘bowl of fruit’ programs such as offering massage therapists, team walking challenges and gym discounts. However, by looking at the bigger picture, when the average cost of dealing with a claim is $50,000 and a serious claim can easily cost hundreds of thousands, early intervention treatment costs easily pay for themselves.

In summary, if you want to help employees and your organisation, make sure you employ people physically capable of performing the specific tasks you want them to - use manual therapy to treat any soft tissue discomfort promptly, regardless of how it is caused, and keep detailed, consistent records of the treatment you have provided.

*Dr James Murray, Founder and Managing Director, Soft Tissue Centre, Australia’s workplace injury treatment specialists. Murray is an expert in soft tissue injuries resulting from repetitive stress and acute sprain strains. Murray has provided treatment support to the Australasian PGA Tour, Ironman Triathlon and the Sydney Olympics.