The Client and Its Challenge
With 4,500 non-union employees, this regional trucking company had seen workers' compensation costs rise over the last five years. As result, the client wanted to take an aggressive approach to lowering costs.

The Risk Consulting Solution
After reviewing the client's workers' compensation data, Marsh recommended an Employee Management Program (EMP). Marsh's EMP is a structured process that places responsibility on operational management to return employees to their fulltime, regular assignments after a workers' compensation injury. Program objectives included teaching operational managers how to effectively manage the small percentage of employees who use workers' compensation as a mechanism not to come to work. This small group is often responsible for the greatest portion of workers' compensation costs.

To facilitate injured employees' return to work, managers and supervisors must take responsibility for creating and assigning transitional duty work tasks that accommodate medical restrictions until employees are ready for regular work. The EMP teaches managers how to align their actions with the workers' compensation system, union representation (when applicable), treating physicians, and their employees.

The client's EMP program included strong, visible participation from senior management as well as an extensive training program for frontline managers. The EMP training taught supervisors how to communicate and work with their employees. Targeted metrics were created to track the progress of the program.

Results
With the EMP in place, the client was able to reduce the severity of workers' compensation claims and incurred losses. Based on 12-month developed claims, the client recorded the following results after implementing the EMP:

• 50 percent reduction in incurred costs
• 40 percent reduction in total paid
• 25 percent reduction in the total number of claims