Helping Your Staff After A Work Accident: A Guide For HR Leaders

For one reason or another, accidents can happen in the workplace. Some of these incidents can be life-changing. When accidents result in injury, an HR manager will be tasked with helping them in any way that they can. 

HR departments, in general, will be responsible for the welfare of the employees. As an HR manager, you will also need to support leaders in the workplace. This guide is designed to inform HR leaders about what to do when injuries happen in the workplace. 

Stress The Importance Of Self-Care 

A lot can happen after a severe work injury. The employee involved is likely to need time off to recover, which is crucial. It is essential to inform the employee that their health comes first during this time. Inform them not to worry about work and take care of themselves. 

Give them time to recuperate, but check in on them from time to time. Help them feel like they’re not alone and that you can assist them in any way you possibly can. 

Ensure The Employee Is Being Looked After 

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, an employer will have a duty of care for their employers. A part of this means that if an employee has been seriously injured and needs time away from work, an HR member should assist them in any way they can.  

Support them by helping ensure they are looked after financially. They will be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay and could be entitled to Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit. Take steps to help them claim this, and work with experts who have experience with these claims. PSR Solicitors are a firm that deals with injury at work claims regularly, so you can work with them directly to help ensure your employee gets fair compensation and that your business does the right thing. 

A complete accident report should have been filled out within the business. An HR leader should always pass this report on to the manager to inform them of the circumstances. The manager can then review the information to determine how this happened and prevent it from happening again.

Review The Risk  

As the HR manager, you will need to lead health and safety briefings. These briefings are vital as they are designed to prevent injury in the workplace. However, if a severe injury has occurred, there is a risk that hasn’t been identified. 

Therefore, you need to take this new risk into account. You should then add this hazard to your next set of briefings to ensure that the incident does not happen again.  

Back To Work Meeting

Back-to-work meetings are all part of your regular HR duties. Employees regularly take time off work sick, and it is your job to find out whether the company can support their return in any way.  

A back-to-work meeting after an injury at work can help reassure employees that steps will be taken to accommodate their worries. There is a good chance that the employee is shaken after the accident and may need to change their work schedule. All you need to do is continue to support them in any way possible.  

Being an HR manager is tricky at the best of times. However, it would help if you were more prepared to deal with a workplace injury.