 Small business accounts for more than 95% of all Australian businesses and are responsible for the health and safety of approximately 4.8 million workers. For most small businesses, a workers' compensation claim may only occur once every several years. For many employers, they pay their premium annually and have no further contact or relationship with their insurer. One of the most challenging elements of workers' compensation schemes is the number of stakeholders involved and the various relationships that exist between these stakeholders. At the immediate level, you have the relationship between the employer and the worker. As the claim progresses, you then have the claims manager or claims agent, the insurer and the treating doctor involved. You may also have other allied health professionals, such as the VOC rehab providers. And finally, the regulator may become involved, although not always. So managing these relationships is understandably challenging. In addition to this, our employer members also report difficulties with the lack of scheme experience, poor understanding of roles and responsibilities, limited training options for their staff in understanding these workers' compensation duties and responsibilities, an increase in stress claims, poor understanding of and support of claims management and return to work in general. The Australian Chamber is a member of Safe Work Australia and represents employers on both work health and safety and workers' compensation matters. Over the past year, Safe Work Australia has had an increased focus in workers' compensation with a number of active projects addressing common issues such as the role of the GP, best practice management of psychological claims and a focus and look into return to work data and improvements there. The presentation today is a partnership between the Australian Chamber, Is Better Together program, Safe Work Australia and Smart Company, aimed at providing audience members and viewers with first-hand information from multiple stakeholders within the scheme, information on resources and clarification of roles and responsibilities. We're lucky and fortunate enough to have three different perspectives on the workers' compensation process today. Our goal today is to guide small businesses on the workers' compensation journey and process. So Liz, if we can start with you for the first question, what are the top three concerns that employers have when it comes to workers' compensation? Well, the Chamber recently conducted a survey and there are quite a few common themes that came out. But the overarching principle was the need to understand the employer's business and how a claim affects the workplace. But in terms of the three top items, I guess the importance of consultation and communication, that's very important. Effective return to work outcomes is also very important, as is premiums not being too volatile and having enough notice in advance so they can structure their cash flow accordingly. I guess the underpinning driver is a communication and consultation. That's the most important thing. And basically talking to the employer. So what is the role of the injured worker when the injury occurred? What happened? What are suitable duties? And how do we get everyone back on track? And so what about small business in particular? Do they have the same concerns or do they differ considering that they're less resourced? They have the same concerns. They just have additional concerns because they are less resourced. And as Jen said that often they don't have much experience with claims. It tends to be the larger employers that have more experience with claims and claims management. So obviously once you've had one or two under your belt you're a bit more familiar with the process. So I guess it's the awareness of what to do and when to do it, how to do it, who can I call on and from a resourcing aspect I think it's not just money. We tend to forget it's time poor as well as not having enough money to spend on things adapting the workplace and also especially with small business they're under resourced in terms of labour. So they can't just pick up the phone and hire someone else. Often you've got the remaining employees there so if someone's off work then it's basically everyone's shoulder to the wheel and try and cover all the bases until that person gets back to work and things can go back to normal. Data shows that most small businesses have one claim every 15 years so as Liz said they don't have the resources or it falls under the HR manager or somebody else whose main job has nothing to do with safety or return to work or anything like that. So scheme agents in the past and eye care in the future will perhaps look at providing or have provided return to work courses and information around that to support employers especially small employers but I guess to Liz's point earlier communications key whether it's eye care or email or Jio moving forward that contact with the employer to help that return to work process from day one is absolutely key to a successful outcome. If I can just pick up on the HR manager many small businesses don't have an HR manager so we do need to keep in mind that small businesses aren't big businesses shrunk small businesses start that and they grow organically with one person or a couple of people so you really need to keep in mind where small businesses come from in terms of the communication one one positive thing that came out was the experience with insurance brokers so we found those employers who had insurance brokers overall had a much better experience with claims management and return to work because I just found that person was the go-between and that person understood their business well and understood the system well and it actually helped them navigate the system so that extra layer of support yes so clearly insurance is an issue of concern of perhaps a bugbear for businesses and we all know that insurance can vary greatly so when it comes to workers compensation what's the insurers role the insurance role in support in supporting employers yeah I think the insurance role begins as a protection mechanism particularly for small employers so it's it's a statutory purchase not not all the purchases of workers compensation necessarily want to buy it but it's it's a statutory purchase that all employers must by virtually all employees of our few few exceptions to that but really what it's doing is it's providing that protection mechanism to the employers and I think that's particularly relevant with small employers if you have one significant incident within your workplace and you're a small employer that could effectively you know be the end of your business and in terms of financial consequences to that incident so the provision of insurance in the first place is that protection that's before the event once the event occurs then and again relative to small employers that's where the insurance role really kicks in and actually providing support at the time that it's needed so there's the there's that sort of hard-line financial support so by buying a policy what the employers effectively doing is it's what the insurance effectively doing saying I will discharge a financial liabilities associated with the injury so I will pay the benefits that are payable such as a weekly benefits to the worker the medical expenses that sort of thing but the role is much broader than that and the insurer can help in terms of orchestrating the rehabilitation and the injury management for the worker following the injury so that happens on a number of levels really it happens quite on a high level from an organisational perspective so all insurers should have a an injury management program in place which just articulates their processes and procedures that they're going to adopt in order to support their their employers but more specifically on a case-by-case basis where there's a significant injury for a worker and our definition of significant injuries where it involves an absence of seven days from work or more then there's a requirement for an injury management plan and that is basically the insurer sitting down talking to all of the stakeholders and saying what do we need to do in order to get this worker back to health back to work so they're talking to the doctor they're talking to the work themselves obviously they're talking to the employer and they're saying these are the things that we can put into place so you've got a soft tissue injury we can put some physiotherapy in place we have a psychological injury we can look at bringing a psychologist into provide some support we can make those payments of weekly payments to the worker so that the workers not financially disadvantaged whilst they're going through this process and we can actually get everybody's mind set on what it is we're here to do which is actually achieve return to health return to work what should an employer expect from an insurer in terms of support Liz touched on earlier it's been to has as well for us we need to understand our customers it's the first time in 30 years that we've actually had face-to-face communications with our customers in the past it's been through scheme agents there's always been a third party there and for us to sort of just come into the scheme and say that we know everybody would be remiss of us we absolutely need to understand the inherent risks of businesses we need to have conversations with them understand what it is that you do day in and day out and then if you do have an injury understand what you've got in place to help you navigate that injury and and what support you need to promote recovery work for us that's the first key thing the other thing and part of the reason why we made the changes we made was to provide a system that's easy to navigate and easy to understand even if it's as simple as turning an eight page renewal document into a four page renewal document with a couple of nice graphics on there that show you how you're performing what your premiums doing what your wages have done we will move towards early next year a portal where small employers can go in and pretty much manage their workers compensation without talking to us if they don't want to think Spencer and Liz both touched on the fact that for a lot of small employers you pay your workers insurance because you have to it's a statutory class then you don't need to talk to us for another 12 months until you pay it again so for us it was understanding customers wanted to have a simple online process if they can and the key thing for me around those 4,700 new businesses we put on place is about 80% of that has been done online so again we listen to our customers and another good thing for me is about 15 to 20% of that was actually done on weekends or outside of business hours so again small employers they've got enough on their plate just managing their business without having to deal with insurance or anything like that so we're listening to our customers we're not there yet no we're near where we want to be as far as providing an insurance product that meets the needs of our customers we'll continue to reach out to peak bodies like the business chamber associations industries and have those conversations just that we get a better understanding of what's happening and what impacts on you whether you're a small employer or medium or a large employer and what we can do to support you. I think I just support that and elaborate a little bit on what Peter was saying about the explaining to employers what it's all about. I think that's true from an underwriting perspective what am I actually buying because not all employers know what they're actually buying and also a post incident the workers compensation legislation is really quite complex so understanding what a worker is entitled to from either a worker's or an employer's perspective is a pretty tricky thing. I've been knocking around for a few years and I'm still struggling with it myself sometimes so I think that we probably have a joint responsibility as the insurer and as the regulator to actually try and impact that as much as we can. I know you've been doing work on your website we've been doing work on ours as well to actually try and cut through some of that complication of the legislation and actually impact for workers and for employers what it's all about and what they're buying and what entitlements are happening at the end of the day. So it's important to the clarification process is important? I think clarification is very important. It's as well as being a statutory scheme it's compulsory so you know let's not skirt around it it's compulsory. It is convoluted the legislation the two pieces of legislation and what I would like to see as well is not only assistance post claim but understanding who is covered and when they need to take our cover because a worker is not just an employee who's on wages a worker includes particular types of contractors subcontractors and also working directors so you can have a director who's taken out key man insurance and yet strictly speaking should be or should be looking at whether or not they should have workers comp instead of that so they think they're covered. So I think education is quite key and I personally would like to see a little bit more than just masses of information stuck on a website. I think it needs to be more helping employers along the way and understanding what they have to do and when they have to do it. The panel tells us a little bit about how occupational rehabilitation fits in with the scheme and whether or not rehabilitation providers are being utilised as much as they could be when it comes to supporting the worker or employer. I think in general terms the use of rehabilitation providers is on the increase within the NSW scheme at the moment certainly the statistical data supports that conclusion. I think that they're potentially a very useful resource within a case so an insurer and an employer an insurer will engage a rehab provider essentially on behalf of the employer and it's really it's their job to come in and bring the stakeholders together and talk about well what does work look like what does a return to work look like how do we take what the GP is telling us in terms of what this worker has capacity to do and translate that into some meaningful work for that individual in there with their employer ideally or with an alternative employer if that's not possible and what what are the things that are stopping that from happening and how can we circumnavigate those issues. It's it's quite it's probably more of an art than a science I think and it's really it's just about cutting through and getting back to the basics that we keep talking about which is keep talking keep the communication going. And so generally how do employers engage with the real rehabilitation provider is that the role of the employer or is that the role of the insurer. Spencer said it's generally the insurer that will instigate that contact and it can be a number of reasons it can be that the worker is struggling to get to get back to work the communication is broken down between the employer and the employer the worker the treating doctors probably not where we want them to be in regards to the return to work process. So generally it's the insurer but there's other stakeholders in in the relationship that can that have relationships with rehab providers that might recommend it whether it's the insurance broker. Some employers retain rehab providers to do the return to work process for them. So it provides that level of support that they don't have and you know at a cost but that provides the detail around suitable duties or how they might manage a particular situation for that particular claim or injured worker. So primarily it's the insurer but certainly there's no reason why an employer can't can't open dialogue with a rehab provider and or their insurance broker if they use a broker. So Liz what sort of support do you think employers would like to receive a part of as part of this process from insurance through to rehabilitation and then eventually and hopefully the outcome of returning back to work. Well I think it depends on the profile of the employer. So if the employer hasn't had any claims or many claims then I think it's more of an awareness education piece and it's it's what do I do. How do I do it. When do I have to do it. By who do I talk to. So it's it's really basic stuff. Very simple straightforward. If they understand the process from go to woe and what's required of them and and when they need to do it and how to do it. That is the very minimal level of support. Then I guess the next level is once you've got the claim you've got the administrative side of things and managing the claim. So employers what what is the effect that this claim has on the employer's workplace. So you one person down who's going to cover that. You don't just ring up a labor hire agency and pull them in. They might not be able to afford that. So you know what's the effect of that claim on that workplace. As well as the physical sort of labor and as I touched on before getting those who are able bodied to cover off on that type of work. You've also got the morale. You know there's a fair bit of a morale aspect involved from from the employer's perspective and keeping the whole team happy and things going along quite well. Especially in a small business. Especially. Yes. Definitely. And the admin side of things. You know I've heard that even though with the weekly the calculation of the weekly payments is an absolute nightmare. First the calculation of it and then secondly having it fit into their own payroll system. It often means that employers have to create their own manual system for their workers on workers com and have that totally outside their normal payroll system. And then there are some employers who have told me that it's just too hard to sort out for now. So they just keep paying the normal amount of wage and then they work it out later and then ask for a refund. But not all employers can do that. Not all employers have the cash flow to do that. So it's it's very much the practical hands on how do the employers actually figure out what to do in amongst their normal business activities. I think there are also other supports that are available and at risk of preempting a future question that address some of the the issues that you raise. So for example we have vocational rehab programs which CIRA provides and ensures can access and they cover a range of different scenarios and probably the most pertinent one to this audience is our return to work assist for micro employers. So this is talking about when an employer has five or fewer employees and you have an injury and the employer is absent from work. If they have some capacity to come back into work but not capacity to fulfill their pre-injury duties then what micro assist does is it says well the insurer can continue to pay the weekly benefits the wages for that person whilst they come back into the working environment which means that the small employer is not disadvantaged so that they can actually go to an external contractor and get somebody else in to to to fulfill the substantive part of that role. So it's almost allowing the worker to come back on a supernumerary basis which is good for the worker you know getting out of the house back into the working environment is fundamentally good for you and it builds their capacity and it builds their capability whilst at the same time not disadvantaged in the employer. There are other things that the vocational rehab programs can do as well such as work trials. So where a worker has some capacity but there's no suitable duties within their employer then they can go to a host employer and that host employer again doesn't pay their wages but helps to build their capacity and their capability whilst they're recovering and then they can return to their pre-injury employer. We have a job cover placement program which financially incentivises employers to take on a worker with a previous injury. So there's a financial incentive there for the employer to take that on and then there are a range of sort of more bespoke solutions such as retraining for the for the worker to enable them to pick up new skills, workplace modifications, so things like we've paid in the past for modifications to a I was going to say pick up truck, that's English, to a utility truck and put a sort of a crane type device on the back so that it would enable the worker to fulfil their role and if you get creative and you can use some of these things and again this is really where the insurer can add some value for the employer and say these things are available let's talk to you about them and my advice to employers would be always to come back to the insurer and say what else can you do, what else can you do, what else can you do and actually promote those conversations as well. Because there are resources. There are resources available, yeah. I think probably small businesses' perspective on workers' compensation is that it is a one-size-fits-all and I think what we've got out of this conversation today that it can be a collaborative process and there are supports in place and readily accessible and there's a lot of information there to support very specific cases as well as quite generic ones as well. The other thing that employers can do is obviously they can visit our websites or they can call 131050 for which is our call centre line and there's information available so you can speak to a real person and say I've got a question about whether I need to buy insurance or I've got a problem with my claim or whatever the case may be so there is always a resource there as well.