Diana Henderson - Employees Behaving Badly

This podcast is sponsored by TalkSpace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In TalkSpace, the leading virtual therapy provider is telling everyone, let's face it, in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at TalkSpace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits, or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to Talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider typically within 48 hours. And because you'll Meet your therapist online. You don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, TalkSpace is in-network with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co-pay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with TalkSpace when you go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code 80. That's SPA CE 80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to Talkspace.com and enter promo code. 80. Hi everyone, it's Bill Black, the exit coach from the Exit Coach Radio show. You know, one of the biggest questions I get on the show is what exactly goes into a business exit plan and when should I start creating mine? Well, I always tell people that the best time to start was 5 years ago, but the next best time is now because you never know when you might need it. So we put together a free report that describes what an exit plan is and what you should know. You can get it free by texting exit plan with no spaces to 44222. That's exit plan to 44222. Again, text exit plan to 44222. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for. Their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the day on Exitcoachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach, Bill Black. Well, hello everyone. Thanks so much for joining me today. It's a pleasure to have you with us as always. Uh, my first guest today is Diana Henderson from the Henderson Group. She's been with me before, and you might recall her interview. Ah, today we're going to talk about employees behaving badly, managing their behavior, and control your workers' compensation pain. The Henderson Group is in the business of helping employers reduce and control their workers' compensation costs, and they also help insurance brokers obtain new clients and retain their current ones by bringing in the expertise that sets them apart from the competition. So let's get right into it, Diana, thank you so much for once again joining me and welcome to today's show. Well thank you and thank you for inviting me back. It's a pleasure to be here as always. Well, you're very welcome. We got a lot of great comments about the last show, and I, you know, if you, if you have not heard it, ladies and gentlemen, you can go onto Exo coach Radio look in our archives and find it. And I, I just wanted to check in with you again cause things are always changing in this field. It's a big pain point for a lot of our Employers. So before we get into what we're going to talk about, let's let's bring them up to speed on you and what the Henderson Group's been up to and what all you do for your clients. Great, well, you know, we started this business back in 2001, so we just celebrated our 17th year anniversary, which, uh, wow, that's great congratulations, time flies. Thank you. And you know, before we did that, I just, I've been in this wonderful world of workers' comp as I call it, for the past 30 years. I was a hearing representative for Southern California Edison and traveled all over the state, appeared at all the different workers' comp appeals board and settled injury claims, and Then I went to work for Hunt Weston Foods in Fullerton. And brought the handling of claims in-house for them for the first time in their history and became their national claims manager and then before we started the business, I was a vice president over at Aon Risk Services and was acting as a consultant for national accounts and had a lot of fun helping those. Entities and industries just manage their workers' comp risks, so lots of lots of fun stuff that goes on in this industry. And you've been through in that time period several cycles of the economy of full employment and full unemployment. So right now, of course we're at full employment. Are issues different today than they were than they are in normal, well, in times that we've seen in the past where we didn't have such a a full employment situation. You know, it's Not too different, quite honestly. I, I, I think what I've seen is that when, when we had a high unemployment rate and employers, um, you know, they were. They were struggling with workers' comp the same way they do now with a low unemployment rate. They're still bringing those same issues in, especially if they're not hiring the right person for the job. I used to, I used to some of my, yeah, I used to accuse some of my HR managers of just hiring someone who could fog a mirror and I said that's not the way we want to do this. Yeah, that's kind of what I was wondering is if you know you would assume that when when there are bad times that people keep the best hopefully, but when they're, when it's like now they're hiring, I mean, I hear this from construction people all the time and other other clients of mine that say it's hard to find anybody, you know, whoever's whoever's sitting in the union hall now isn't the best and the brightest. And so I was just wondering if more, more people that are maybe um less adept or less skilled are being hired and thus if if rates or rates of people getting injured might be going up. Does that happen in this particular time? I hear you saying no. Not really. We've got some other issues that seem to be cropping up though here in Southern California that we call it a continuous trauma phenomenon and that's really hitting SoCal a lot. And um I can kind of go into that if you if you'd like to. Just a minute or two on that cause it's current and I think our listeners are always looking for, you know, the what what's happening now from from our show. So a couple of weeks ago I co-presented at a workshop. We had a number of Southern California HR people in the room, and we were talking about these continuous trauma claims that were showing up in the mail anywhere from a few weeks to one day short of a year after an employee has left them. And these are injuries that were never reported during the time that the person was working for them. Some of them are filed in retaliation. Some are filed because the person can't find any work, and these claims are really costly, and they're having significant impacts on experience modification factors. And those experience modification factors, as they go up, that's what increases the premiums for employers, and the majority of these are even are being filed in the manufacturing industry. So this has become a problem and I will say that from my experience, The root cause of this issue. is lying within our current law here in California and We've made it. California law has made it easy for these claims to be filed. Costly for them to be defended and the problem is continuous trauma claims. It switches the burden of proof over to the employer. Who now has to prove that the injury wasn't caused by the work. Versus a specific injury where somebody trips and falls and breaks their arm, let's say, where the employee must now prove that the injury is work related. So we've got a real serious problem here in Southern California and it's interesting how it's It has found itself here in the LA and Orange County and San Diego regions. So I would really be encouraging the employer, the business owners out there to be looking at these issues, and there's a number of things that there's a few things they can do, not a lot of things, but a few things they can do to kind of. Get ahead of them Mhm. Please tell us. Well, the one thing is, and this is a scary thing to do. When you are exiting an employee from your business, whether you're terminating them or they're resigning or maybe they're retiring, is to go through that exit interview and ask the question that most employers don't want to ask, and that is. Is there an injury that you haven't reported that you want to report now? Have you been injured on the job? Are you leaving here healthy? And I know that's a scary question to ask because you're afraid of the answer. But I will tell you, I would rather someone say yes while I still have them sitting in that chair in front of me. And then ask them about what happened, offer them some medical treatment if they need it, versus waiting, you know, we have a statute of limitations here in California, and it's 365 days from the date of the injury. So you could wait as long. In fact, the average here in California is about 250 days for a report of injury from a, from a worker who has left your employment. And by that time You're now going to have to do a deposition to get the story versus having them sit in front of you and now asking the story and getting ahead of this thing. So this is a big issue and, and I hope employers kind of take heed of this and uh there's some other things they should be doing from a from a, I want to call it an activist standpoint, but you've got to get involved in getting these laws changed. It's our laws that are driving this. It's it's an open door. Well, I think you just gave people a really good reason to call you and find out what those other reasons are, or they might want to pick up a copy of your new book that you're writing, and I, I've just heard you're writing a new book, and it's called. Ah, is this the new one, or is it, you have one called Employers Behaving Badly, or is that the new one? My old book employers behaving badly. I wrote about 3 years ago. And what was always interesting is when my clients, I would go see my clients and I'd take them my book, they would say, Well, wait a second, what about employees behaving badly? So of course that became my inspiration and for this new book, employees behaving badly manage their behavior and control your workers' comp pain and We are looking to publish that in the first quarter of next year and companion obviously to the employers behaving badly. We're going to go into some really great topics for people. Please hurry. People want to read that book. That sounds like a fascinating read. So it's about, is it about kind of claim stories or situations that have happened or what's it all about? Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to be taking a deeper dive into issues that surround both legitimate as well as questionable injury claims. So I'll be talking about topics like the difference between fraud versus abuse. How to reduce litigation. This is where employees who are injured seek representation from an attorney. I'm going to delve into how to manage a return to work while an employee is recovering and what do you do if they can never return back to the usual job because of this injury. And then the last couple we're gonna talk about how to hold employees accountable while they're getting treatment for their injury and then we'll also go into a real interesting area somewhat complicated or has been somewhat complicated and that's the overlap of work comp and other types of time off benefits like sick leave and short and long term disability and the job protection under Family Leave Act so. We're really going to get into the nitty gritty of how to manage those, those work comp costs and losses. You know, there's a, there's an old song, uh, you probably have heard New York, New York, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, but California. If if you're an employer in California, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. There's always so much going on. Now what you do is, as I said earlier, help employers reduce and control their workers' comp costs, but you also come in as a valuable resource for insurance brokers. So someone doesn't have to necessarily hire you to investigate their situation as an employer, but you, but an employer could certainly tell their broker, Hey, bring in the Henderson Group because we need more expertise in this particular situation. Is that, did I say that correctly? You sure did, and I would say probably around 50% of our clients are insurance brokers, and they've either been prodded by their clients or they've just made the decision, hey, we're going to bring somebody in. Who has greater expertise than we do and we're going to have and it's been great we've helped many, many clients of insurance brokers bring their claims to conclusion, reducing experience mods, bringing down premiums, and I would say that's what we do every day and we interact directly with the claims adjuster in order to get that done. OK, so here's a layman's question. Um, not being in that particular area of field of, of work myself, um, why would a broker bring you in? Is it because they, they may just not, they may, they may be a generalist in the overall world of, of, um, this type of insurance, property insurance in general, and maybe not as a specialist in workers' comp and. And so they, there are certain situations where they really need someone to go deep on this area. Did I, did I, why, why would they? Why would they bring you in? Well, you explained it very well, and I will say that my broker clients are experts in going out into the marketplace and getting the best policy of insurance for workers' comp that they can for their clients. That's what they do the best. And with my help, I can, I can get into the client and now we're working to get those claims closed, reducing those outstanding reserves, bringing down those experience mods and helping that broker tell the best story in the marketplace about this client. So it encompasses a huge, huge area but at the end of the day for these these business owners, it's. How do I get this bottom line cost down so I don't shut my doors? Right, and it's not all about just going out and finding another insurance rate. It's about doing the best with what you have, it sounds like, and, ah, let's not forget the brokers are also pounding the pavement for new clients as well. that eats up a lot of their time. So maybe they don't have, you know, when it comes to this particular area. It's very, very helpful for them to have a, a true specialist like you and someone that can come in and say, hey, let's, let's, ah, let's get this cost down by, by working, um, from a base of knowledge on how we can do that. It sounds like a very valuable resource. Could you share like a, a maybe a a brief success story or something like that so to illustrate this with our our listeners? Sure, absolutely. Uh, not too, uh, long ago, we had a client in the demolition and construction business, and their business was driven through a lot of projects with public entities, cities, counties, school districts, and the like. But the problem that they were facing is they were not able to bid on any projects. If their experience Maude was in excess of 125%. And literally they were, they couldn't even put a bid in because the city or county or school district had a qualifier. So they were excluded and this was a recipe for disaster for them. They were at risk of having to close their doors. Their business was going down. So they needed to reduce that experience mod. Now, It's kind of like turning the Titanic, and the reason why I say that is getting your experience mod factor doesn't happen overnight because the factor takes into account 3 years of your claim history. So in order to do this in the correct way, we looked at the root causes, we looked at hiring strategies and safety strategies. We made sure that we were now reducing the number of injuries. We were reducing the severity of any injury that did happen. And then we also spent a lot of time working on closing all of those open claims that had happened over the past 3 years that were driving up the experience mod. Well, about 12 to 16 months or so later. Their experience mod slowly came down. They were at 76% by the time we were done putting in all kinds of great process for them, which now they were better than most of their competition. They were able to bid on projects. They were successful in getting many of those projects they bid on and of course the other thing was their premiums were reduced exponentially, and I will tell you these. You know how they say don't shoot the messenger. Sure, Maude was above 125. They never liked seeing me come into the door, but I will tell you when we got it down to 76, they were the happiest business owners that you've ever seen, shaking my hand. They were so excited, so, you know, it's kind of fun when that happens, but um yeah. You're the hero. Well, you found them a lot of money, a lot of profit that. They had been kind of slipping through their fingers before and of course you know the other thing that happens in a a good economic time like now is is things get competitive and so finding any any money back that's got to be one of their bigger line items on their profit and loss statement is the cost of workers' comp insurance, right? It's a big expense. So you're, you're a hero. Congratulations. And you know you're my hero you're a heroine, OK, but whatever the case, I appreciate you coming on and sharing some great ideas and tips for our listeners once again, and I wish you absolute success with your new book Employees Behaving Badly, which again is due out. A come back and tell us when it's when it comes out next. A what wintertime, first, 2nd quarter. That's your target? Yeah, yeah, about springtime, yeah, it sounds, it sounds like a very, very beneficial read for our listeners, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us. The Henderson Group, you can, you can get in touch with the Henderson Group. I'll give you their phone number 949. 417. 5722. You can also look them up on the internet at the Hendersongroup.net. Again, that's T H E Henderson, H E N D E R S O N group dot net. And Diana, I really enjoyed talking with you once again and ah I look forward to seeing you in and around the provisor circle where we both tend to to network. Well, thank you again for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio. Hey friend, I know how it feels waking up exhausted after multiple trips to the bathroom and feeling embarrassed by sudden leaks. I used to be constantly on edge, searching for a restroom whenever I was out. Then I discovered better woman. I was skeptical at first, but two months in. Everything changed. I experienced improved bladder control. No more heart-stopping moments when I laugh or sneeze, less urge to go, deeper and more restful sleep. I finally felt like myself again, confident and in control. Bettero is natural, effective, and trusted by women for over 25 years. Ready to take back your control? Head over to Bebetternow.com to order your supply today. That's Bebetternow.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Users directed individual results may vary.