Can Ohio Workers’ Comp be a Competitive Advantage?

To be successful in today’s business world, companies need to find every competitive advantage possible. Some may be surprised to learn that Ohio workers’ compensation could be one of those competitive advantages. 

This summer, we watched as the best athletes in the world gathered in Japan for the 2021 Summer Olympics. The individuals who qualified for these games trained for years, spending hours and hours each day in preparation for this one event. In doing so, the swimmers competed against other swimmers, runners against other runners, and so on. This level of competitive comparison seems obvious in the sports world. Why don’t we do this within the workers’ compensation arena as well?

Know Your Competitive Advantage

To know how your company’s workers’ compensation program is really performing, you need to compare your company with other companies in your specific industry, like athletes do in their specific sports.

To gain an advantage over their competition, athletes will try different methods of training, evaluate and fine tune their diets, and even find new ways for their bodies to recover from hard workouts.  Athletes never stop looking for every competitive advantage possible. Neither should you.

The following are some questions you should ask about your business and your workers’ compensation program:

• How do you compare within your industry?
• What is your lost time ratio compared to similar businesses?
• How does your average claims cost compare to your competitors?
• Do you experience more severe workplace accidents than other companies in Ohio?
• Are you getting the appropriate discount on medical bills according to the fee schedule?

If your organization is in the manufacturing industry, the answers to these questions will probably be different than a company who is in an office setting. That’s why it’s important to know how you stack up against your competition. For example: if your average claims costs are less than the industry average, that could mean that you’re spending less on workers’ compensation than your competitors, allowing you to allot those funds for other uses.

Another example: if your lost time ratio is lower than the industry average, that might help your company get the winning bid for a job. Your Managed Care Organization (MCO) should be able to assist you in gathering and evaluating this data.

Comparing your organization with others in your specific industry can help you determine if you have a workers’ compensation competitive advantage.

Know Your MCO Partner

An MCO partner like Sheakley UniComp can guide you and your employees through the confusing world of workers’ compensation. We can help you understand more about the BWC and its processes. Your MCO serves both the best interests of your company and your employees by keeping your workers’ compensation costs down and returning injured employees to work quickly.

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