Can you avoid employees getting injured before they are even hired? Emma Hosking & Deb Mackay explain how
Injury prevention is a critical part of any modern workplace, and recent years have seen a significant push for a proactive – rather than reactive – approach to its practice. But what if it could begin even earlier, during the recruitment process? Is there a way to minimise injury risk before employees even enter the workplace?
Emma Hosking, Senior Business Development Manager at Gallagher Bassett and Deb Macksy, founder of Aurenda, believe that there is – namely, the effectively implementation of pre-employment checks to ensure that business hire employees who aren’t injury-prone.
“During interviews, there’s understandably a tendency for interviewees to want to put their best foot forward,” says Macksy. “So even if they’ve got a pre-existing injury or issue, they’ll often downplay it.”
This can be problematic in both the short and longer-term, if it’s not picked up before the person begins work, Macksy notes. There’s not only the potential for injury to the individual themselves, but to surrounding co-workers. While the specific duty of care legislation varies state by state, there’s the potential for common law negligence if such issues occur.
“It’s not uncommon for an injury to occur within the first 5-10 days of taking up the role, but it’s also entirely possible for underlying issues to be exacerbated over a longer period,” says Macksy. “The law tends to side with the employee, and look at the employer from a ‘you should have known’ perspective. If you’ve got several injured people, that can obviously end up being quite costly from both a legal and worker’s comp perspective.”
It’s a core HR issue, stresses Hosking.
“We can talk about risks and trends, why injuries might keep happening and how we can stop that – all of it’s critical,” says Hosking. “But there’s a need to understand the consequential issues too. What sort of human impact do situations like these have? How do they impact on employee morale?”
In practical terms, Macksy points to a variety of steps and critical tools to help screen for potential issues. The first is a detailed pre-employment questionnaire, which asks a variety of similar questions in multiple different ways, to ensure that accurate information is being collected. Additionally, it includes a section where the worker has to make a declaration of truth.
“That’s pretty standard these days, so in addition for manually intensive roles, we also carry out an Occupational Role Profile,” says Macksy. “This is a document that outlines all of the physical demands required by a specific role, which is then forwarded to a doctor – who assesses the candidate with these considerations in mind.”
With these results, Macksy notes, it’s easier to make more informed hiring decisions.
“Obviously HR managers don’t want to be accused of discrimination,” says Macksy. “But truthfully, it’s not about excluding candidates – it’s about making better safety decisions for the benefit of everyone.”
Nor does the report need to define whether the candidate is hired or not, notes Hosking.
“Certainly there might be instances where you recognise a candidate’s skill, but there are issues that would prevent them from being effective in the initially proposed role,” says Hosking. “That might be grounds to consider modifying the current role, or perhaps hiring them for another position with the organisation.”
Of course, both women are keen to stress the ongoing importance of workplace safety once hires are made.
“Excellent safety standards really need to be a given,” says Macksy. “Beyond making safe hires, the same process can be used in order to look out for existing employees who may be at risk too, and looking at ways to better facilitate their roles, or offering alternative duties. That might include ageing employees, people returning from extended sick leave or those who’ve previously experienced a workplace injury.”
Ensuring workplace safety presents has its logistical challenges, notes Hosking, but it is something that’s critical to acknowledge as an HR professional.
“It’s really important that it’s proactive,” says Hosking. “It’s a place where employers can demonstrate how well they take care of their employees – rather than simply box-checking.”
To find out more about how GB works with HR professionals to reduce the risk of injury through Pre-Employment Screening solutions click here.
Gallagher Bassett is currently offering HRD readers a free analysis of their injury portfolio to identify hotspots and help reduce the cost of injury – to find out more, click here
