Marsh offers an interactive tool to let you compare your workers comp losses with others in your industry. It entails entering a few bits of information, and it then generates bar charts that depict industry numbers and your variance from the norm. Of course, it’s a rough benchmark, but it still offers an industry-specific yardstick, and most of us are eager to see how we measure up to our peers. The site has other interactive tools too – test your liability limits, or benchmark your Directors & Officers liability.
The site also has a library of articles on various business insurance issues, including one entitled Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs. Here is an excerpt:
“The average cost of a claim involving an employee who lost time from work was $30,000 in 2002, according to data gathered by Marsh. In the aggregate, these costs have a big impact on an employer’s bottom-line. A business with $100,000 in workers’ compensation losses and a one-percent margin (such as in retail) needs to generate $10 million in sales to pay its workers’ compensation claims.”
Obviously, we think the best way to forestall these punishing costs would be to prevent claims from occurring in the first place; Marsh suggest that employers view workers comp initiatives in terms of pre-loss and post-loss initiatives. They offer their views on an effective claims management component:
“To address post-loss issues, employers may need to sharpen their focus on the injury and claims management processes. This could involve establishing consistent policies for reporting claims and procedures for dealing with workplace injuries and providing medical referrals. A key element in any employer’s post-loss activities involves implementing a return-to-work policy that gives employees an opportunity to begin working on a modified schedule as soon as they are physically able. Transitional or temporary work programs offer significant benefits to the employee and potential cost savings for the organization.”
At Lynch Ryan, we are ardent believers in the need to measure and benchmark losses against the industry and also against a company’s own performance over time, so we are happy to see this handy tool from the folks at Marsh. If you haven’t visited the Marsh site lately, you might find some valuable risk management or HR resources.