Proof: Stay Interviews Reduce Workers’ Comp Claims

Chris Clark is a Senior Health & Safety Consultant for Cove Risk Services, a Workers’ Comp administrator for multiple Self Insurance Groups, working across New England to help companies reduce their workers’ comp claims. Chris works with a broad spectrum of clients in healthcare, manufacturing and other industries, and his mission extends beyond saving his client companies a boatload of workers’ comp cash. Chris is genuinely interested in helping those companies that are fortunate enough to work with him to improve employee engagement, safety, productivity…and employee turnover.  And as you might surmise, Chris is a really smart, dedicated guy and a good guy.

Today, May 21^st, Chris and I along with others on our team are partnering to present a webinar to Chris’s clients on how Stay Interviews reduce workers’ comp claims. And I know this is true because Chris told me.

Chris called me out of the blue earlier this year to ask about this Stay Interview thing…all because he had heard about Stay Interviews from a few of his clients. Not coincidentally, each of those clients represented three of twenty-one healthcare facilities as part of Covenant Health…and Covenant Health has been our client for the past four years. Specifically, Chris had noticed a sharp drop-off in workers’ comp claims and when he called to inquire why, the answer he heard was “Because each of our leaders are doing Stay Interviews with their teams”.

Wisdom I’d Never Heard Before

Naively, I’ve always thought of workers’ comp claims as legitimate ones due to true workplace injuries. But Chris has cautioned me to think like this:

Employees who value their employers and connect well with their managers will run through walls for them. But those who feel isolated or disregarded will call in sick on Fridays because of a headache…or a fake headache.

Chris goes onto say that during his nearly 30 years in his field he has seen advances including various robotics, driver tracking, administrative controls, and related training with accompanying software, all of which are important safety advancements. But the greatest variable in worker safety is people, in that each of us is different and “personalities can be hard to manage”. That in Chris’s words “It takes more than a paycheck to make people satisfied with their work…and this has a direct correlation to injuries and claims I have seen”.

Chris Clark’s Introduction Today

Chris has of course planned out how he will introduce our webinar today and here is an excerpt:

“Earlier this year I participated in a claims review for one of our larger nursing home clients.  For those who don’t know, being a caregiver is hard work.  This member was running into their third year of great workers’ comp success.  Better than usual.  At the end of the meeting, I asked their Director of HR what was up.  Is there a reason they are having so much success?  She said, “Actually, yes, Chris.  We’re doing Stay Interviews now.  I believe it has made a major impact on many things here, including our safety program”.    What the heck was a “stay interview” I had to learn more…so, I reached out to Dick Finnegan.”

So now we know Stay Interviews not only improve retention, engagement, and productivity…but also workers’ comp claims as well. Please reach out to me as Chris Clark did if you’d like to learn more.

What are your employee retention goals?  
Schedule a conversation with me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com and we’ll discuss the numbers and needs to evaluate your retention goals. We work with companies in every type of industry to cut turnover by 20% and more by building trust through Stay Interviews and retention accountabilities.