How to Reduce Your Liability for Workers Compensation During Worker Shortages
Worker shortages are tough for every employer. Being too selective may mean you sacrifice your deadlines to ensure you keep your quality, being too welcoming to every candidate could mean the complete reversal where quality is sacrificed instead. However, there are more dangers that come with hiring just anyone off the street - there's a much higher risk you will be scammed by them or that their inexperience will open you up to a workers comp claim. Here's what you can do to limit your liability.
Look to the Past
Hopefully you have some experience with worker shortages. You need to draw from your past, and identify the major pitfalls and mistakes that were made when you had a limited pool to select employees from. While you may not have had any claims filed before, you should be able to see the types of situations that arose from the workers' skills. Were people careless with the equipment? Did they generally need a lot more help to complete their tasks? Were they constantly asking for more money or time off without offering anything in return? These types of workers are most likely to cause you grief later on either through legitimate injuries or fake ones. This should give you an indication of how to best plan divide the workload and immediately catch problems before they start.
Interview With Care
The interview is your first chance to limit your liability. Don't take it lightly! An interview needs to be about figuring out the responsibility level of your candidate, so they have less chance of being hurt. Accidents can happen to anyone, but some people are more susceptible than others. Ask the questions you care about, and get a sense for how the structure their days. Laziness and carelessness can travel from personal to private life. While a your potential employee isn't going to admit their flaws, they will reveal clues about their personality right upfront. Don't ignore your better instincts if you sense there's a problem.
Get Creative
You need to find ways to advertise your opening everywhere you can: online, on community bulletin boards and through referrals. The more choices you have, the more likely it is you'll find the people you want. It can be overwhelming to have variety, but ultimately you need it to be successful. You may also want to consider switching up the tasks if you're still finding it hard to attract good people. If there are less dangerous tasks that can be done to help your best workers, then that could be a new role you carve out. Limit the responsibility of those you might consider at-risk, and you'll also limit your liability.