Daily Biz Solutions

No matter what kind of office you run, there is always a chance that someone can get hurt while they are on the job. This is true whether your business involves actively sending people into dangerous situations (electricians for example) or is simply a bunch of accountants sitting at desks crunching numbers while listening to music through headphones (you never know when a chair will give out, sending someone toppling to the floor).

So what do you do? What happens if one of your employees gets hurt while they are working for you?

Get Help

We mean legal help. Specifically, an injured employee should meet with a workers compensation lawyer. You might have one on retainer for your company already but it’s also good to offer to pay for outside counsel if your employee wants to find his own independent representation (try not to take this personally—it’s a sound business decision). A lawyer can walk your employee through the claim process and help figure out whether what happened to your employee is covered by worker’s comp or not.

Seek Advice

While your employee is meeting with his lawyer, meet with your own. Talk about whether or not this injury is covered under your liability insurance. Ask whether or not your company could find itself in the middle of a lawsuit should the employee decide to sue for things not already covered by insurance or worker’s comp.

Note: Ask your attorney about what, exactly, you should offer to pay for. Worker’s comp and insurance will require you to cover certain costs for your employee. Beyond that, though, you might feel like you want to cover the cost of recovery time, etc. It’s natural to feel guilty and want to work overtime to help someone feel better. Unfortunately this isn’t always in your best legal interest—especially if your employee has been talking about suing.

Take Future Precautions

Find out the cause of the accident and spend whatever money you need to spend to fix the situation and make it even safer in the future. Sometimes there are freak accidents, sure, but most often workplace injuries are the result of something being neglected or poorly managed. Find the problem and solve it so that nobody else gets hurt.

Take a Breath

It’s easy to panic when someone you hire gets hurt. You feel guilty. You want to bend over backwards to help the person (we’ve already talked about that). You’re also going to be feeling the urge to go overboard in making your workplace extra safe. Before you baby proof every moving part in your office space and require your employees to wear full body armor “just in case”, take a breath. You’re already working on ensuring the problem doesn’t happen again. While you do that, perform a safety audit and then do your best to get back to work.

Remember, you do still have a business to run. It sounds cold but you can’t let one injury shut down your entire company. The best thing you can do is ensure that your other employees are also taken care of and have a sense of security in their jobs.

Good luck!