How Injuries In The Workplace Can Affect Your Insurance Premiums

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Most businesses work hard to prevent injuries in the workplace; after all, they cause more harm than good in every sense. Whether valuable team members have to take time off to recover or your business needs to repair expensive equipment, accidents lead to issues that can be difficult to resolve and take your time away from your important work.

One question that many employers wonder is how workplace injuries will affect insurance premiums. Across the US, almost every state has made it mandatory for employers to take out workers’ compensation insurance to cover if a member of staff requires time off work due to an injury that was not their fault.

Additionally, other costs associated with a workplace injury could lead to a claim, and all this might affect your premiums. Keep reading, and we’ll explore the topic in more detail.

What Sort Of Injuries Require Compensation?

The type of injuries that require compensation will vary, but in general, it will be anything that requires an ongoing period of recovery. This might include any injury that requires surgery to fix or that alters the worker’s life to such an extent that they can no longer work or live as they used to. Solicitors such as the experts at Corey Pollard believe that workers’ compensation should be paid for a shoulder injury requiring surgery, although this does depend on the circumstances. Work with expert workers’ comp solicitors like these to understand the rough values of each claim.

What Other Costs Could Raise Business Insurance Premiums?

Alongside any claims for compensation for your workers, other costs could be claimed against your general liability policy, which could also raise your premiums. These include:

• The cost of repairing equipment or machinery damaged in the incident
• Shutdown fees if the workplace has to be evacuated while the injured worker is treated
• Wages to cover replacing the injured worker while they recover

These costs and others can be covered by your general liability policy, which can raise the premium on this as well as your workers’ compensation insurance. Having a lot of claims on your policies could also make it harder for you to switch providers in the future to get a better deal on your coverage.

Conclusion  

Ultimately, every business and situation is different, but in general, filing a claim on any insurance policy will cause the rates to rise. A small claim might not affect your costs going forward, but larger claims, or several made concurrently, could mean that you pay more for your business insurance policies in the future. To reduce your need to claim, the only thing any company can do is provide adequate safety training and equipment to staff to reduce the chances of an accident occurring. It’s impossible to prevent incidents entirely, but by being proactive, you can reduce the chances of your premiums going up. With costs escalating across the economic landscape, these savings could be crucial to your ongoing business success.