Five Ways to Protect Your Employees’ Health and Well-being, Post-injuries

Metalworking jobs come with potential hazardous situations. A regular day can involve cuts, eye abrasions and/or back injuries. Soon after, conversations focus on treating the physical injury.  

But what about the hidden obstacles that can prevent your employees from returning to work? Employees injured on the job are twice as likely to experience serious psychological distress compared to those without injury. Duties like household chores, child care, and paying bills can feel like monumental tasks.  

Injured workers need an advocate — and your metalworking shop can help. Here’s how.  

1. Make the effort to understand their challenges from the start. 

Your injured employees are more than their jobs and skill sets. They have obligations to their family and friends, and they have roles in the community. Injuries can have a real impact on their life.  

Following their injury, they may experience: 

• Increased anxiety and stress 
• Financial insecurity 
• Fears of reinjury 
• Job uncertainty  

• Chronic pain 
• A lack of social support from friends, family and colleagues 
• Difficulty adapting to physical and emotional changes

Any of these experiences can delay your employee’s recovery. This can lead to worse outcomes for your workers, and higher costs for your business. 

When you understand their challenges, you can become a better advocate during their recovery. Don’t underestimate your shop’s role. Your support is crucial, and it can have a positive impact on their life outside of work, and when they return. 

1. Embrace the technology available to you. 

If the last few years are any sign, technologies such as robotics, automation and digital transformation have transformed metalworking. The same applies to injury care. New tools are improving access and support for injured employees. Still, it can feel overwhelming to weed through available options. One of the best places to start is with your insurer.  

Below are several tools that could help your injured workers and business: 

• Data analytics can spot less obvious risks that may have gone unaddressed. It allows for earlier intervention and more proactive support. Better information can then lead to better, tailored care.

• Telehealth support meets injured employees where they’re at: in the comfort of their homes. It removes geographic limitations, reduces wait time, and controls costs by eliminating travel. All while receiving the support of a nurse case manager.

• Virtual reality therapy is a newer tool aimed at helping injured workers. The goal is to use digital environments and activities to help workers manage their pain and anxiety. 

Technology shouldn’t replace personal support. It should augment it. After working in managed care for more than 30 years, I’ve learned one lesson. Each injured worker responds to different treatments. When you approach support with an open mind, your injured employees’ benefit. 

1. Create a communication plan focused on empathy. 

After an injury, communication is one of the greatest tools to help workers on their road to recovery. They need your compassion and support to ease feelings of fear and isolation.  

Think about how—and when—you’d want your company to treat you after an injury. Now reflect that in your communication style. Below are some tips to make your employees feel valued and supported: 

• Express your genuine concern during their recovery 
• Schedule regular check-ins with them, using a variety of communication methods 
• Offer support and resources  

• Outline possible return-to-work arrangements, with modified duties 
• Help them set goals for their return  

1. Put a return-to-work plan in place. 

The workplace can be much more than a paycheck for your employees. It’s a place of community outside of their family and friends. An injury can remove that support network from their lives in the short term. Here’s how to ease your employees back to work: 

• Who should be involved? 

A well-rounded program usually involves:   

• The injured employee  
• The employee’s supervisor  

• A human resources representative  
• Your claims representative  
• The employee’s treating provider — who will coordinate with the insurance claims representative 

• How should it be outlined? 

Assign a leader for your program. This person often works with your human resources and safety departments to create consistent expectations.  

Your team should create guidelines that communicate your business’s ability to offer flexible accommodations. When you establish clear goals and criteria, you can monitor results and adjust support as needed. 

• How should it be put into action? 

With your plan in place, discuss accommodations for injured employees. That can look like: 

• Modified job duties, to align with their restrictions, in their existing job role 
• Part-time work in original or alternative roles 
• Machinery and equipment maintenance 
• Safety inspections 
• Training other employees 

• Inventory management 
• Office tasks 

The work should be meaningful and engaging. When your employees feel appreciated, they start to feel like part of the workplace again.  

1. Reinforce safety as a priority. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Use this expression as a reminder to review your safety plan.  

If you haven’t already, create — or update — your safety program. A culture of safety requires daily commitment: 

• Hold regular trainings  
• Conduct safety audits 

• Provide your employees with protection to do their jobs 
• Address potential hazards as soon as they’re found 

A workforce that feels safe also feels supported. It’s another tangible example that you care for your employees’ well-being.  

Peace of Mind — for Your Employees and Business 

The physical, mental, and emotional challenges after an injury can have a dramatic impact on injured employees. Without your support, they may face delayed recoveries and worse outcomes.  

Be there for your team. They need someone in their corner after an injury. Your business can be one of their greatest advocates. I’ve seen the benefits firsthand after talking with injured workers. 

It pays dividends when you create a workplace that prioritizes your employees’ health and well-being.  

Talk with your team and local experts to develop a plan specific to your metalworking business. Together, you can encourage better outcomes — for your employees — and your shop.  

Sentry Insurance

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