Employees say the darndest things...

A few months ago, I wrote about the importance of communicating your RTW program.  Maybe some of our loyal blog-followers have taken steps to communicate their modified duty or RTW policy.  Maybe not.  No matter which group you find yourself in, here’s a little experiment to help you gauge just how much your employees know, or don’t know, about RTW.

That’s right an experiment.  Please don’t feel as if you must limit yourself to workers’ compensation and return to work programs.  Expand the scope of this very non-scientific study I’m about to propose, and see what comes back. 

Drum roll, please.

Ask your employees what type of benefits they have available to them.

Ta-da!  Voila!  Profound, isn’t it??

Here’s my point – the results will likely surprise you.  I envision the responses reminiscent of the interviews on “Kids Say the Darndest Things”.  Ask anyone open-ended questions, and you just never know what responses you’re going to get.  I’d be willing to bet that modified duty and workers’ compensation aren’t on the top of the list.  That’s a problem, particularly if you have a RTW program that you’ve put a lot of effort into.

So, what can employers do?

Obviously the first step is to communicate the message to your employees.  This message should be clear, consistent and simple.  Like most things in life, the fewer words the better.  There are many suggestions on how to do this (newsletters, posters, payroll stuffers, wallet cards, annual compensation statements, etc.) As an aside, we’ve created a lot of these things already.

You’ll probably feel like I do when I talk about modified duty or return to work (or, as we say, wellness) – you feel like you’ve communicated your message a thousand times.  The amazing thing is that there are still many people who haven’t heard it.  Maybe they were in the restroom, or maybe they were on vacation or out sick, or sadly, maybe they were present but don’t remember the message.  The point is, not everyone has heard it, and it’s worth saying again, and again, and again, until your employees can communicate the message back to you – or until they start mimicking (in jest) your catchy saying you’ve come up with as part of your communication strategy.  Spoof or no spoof, you’ll know they’ve got the message!