Injuries happen. Auto dealers who have successfully implemented a positive safety culture have created effective procedures for helping an injured employee get back to work. A lot can be done to communicate to the injured colleague that they are valued and wanted back.

Here are a couple of scenarios where it?s important to encourage employees to return to work:

(1) Injured employees who haven?t yet reached maximum improvement but are able to return to work in a transitional assignment.
(2) An injured employee who can?t fully recover from an injury, but can return to a different job.

So how do you make sure people in these situations know they can ? and should ? come back? Have a written return-to-work policy and give it to your employee. Set the expectation that they are wanted back, if at all possible.

This is a win/win approach to an injury: Employees feel appreciated and are more productive. Employers gain from lower workers? comp premiums and lower staff turnover. By the way, this topic can get complicated. Read more at http://blog.kpaonline.com/2012/10/safety-culture-tip-4-back-to-work/