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Workers' Compensation: A Critical Element
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All employers covered by the Workers' Compensation Act must establish and maintain an account with WCB-Alberta. As an employer, the premiums you pay help fund the workers' compensation system, protecting you and your workers against the impacts of workplace accidents and injuries.
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Your responsibilities as an employer when a work-related injury or illness happens:
Report the injury
• If you have been advised that one of your employees has been injured. It is the law to report the injury to WCB within 72 hours.
• Report fatalities immediately.
• Provide your worker with a Worker Report of Injury Form and
a copy of your Employer Report of Injury or Occupational Disease.
Treatment
• Provide any first aid treatment required at the scene of the accident.
• Keep a record of the treatment and provide your worker with a copy.
• If required, send your worker for immediate medical attention.
• You are responsible to arrange and pay for transportation if there is a cost associated (e.g., ambulance fees or taxi fare).
Wages and health benefits
• Pay your injured worker's full wages for the day the injury occurred. If they are unable to work beyond the day of the accident, compensation payments start the first regular working day afterward. Cheques are issued every two weeks.
• If you continue to pay your worker full wages during the period of
disability, the compensation they are eligible to receive will be paid to you. Please advise your adjudicator or case manager that you are paying your worker directly to avoid duplicate wage-loss payments.
• Notify WCB within 24 hours of your worker's return to work.
• If your worker was injured between September 1, 2018 and March 31, 2021 and you were paying into their employment benefit plan before their accident or illness, you're also required to continue paying for your injured workers' health benefits while they are absent from work for up to one year following the date of the accident. This is no longer required for claims occurring on or after April 1, 2021, though you may voluntarily choose to
extend health benefits for your worker while they're away from work.
Source: wcb.ab.ca
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If your worker has been injured, you are required by law to submit the employer report of injury form within 72 hours after becoming aware of an injury or illness. The sooner WCB receives your information, the faster entitlement for your worker to benefits and services can be determined.
WCB Alberta provides several options to submit forms:
Option 1: Report online using MyWCB
myWCB provides you with access to a number of online services, including online reporting.
Through myWCB, electronic injury reporting will guide you through the reporting process and provide you with online help along the way.
To report your employee's injury, log in to myWCB or sign up for a myWCB account.
Additional information about myWCB can be found on Online services for employers page.
Option 2: Submit a one-time injury report
If you are unable to sign up for online services, you can submit a one-time injury report by filling out an online employer report of injury form.
Submit a one-time injury report.
Option 3: Report by fax
If you are unable to access online services, you can submit the employer report of injury form by fax.
Download the employer report of injury form
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Understanding Claims and Claims History
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WCB Alberta makes it easy for employers to manage claims and understand claims history. Creating and maintaining your online account makes for real-time, comprehensive information that is available instantly. Employers can instantly keep their account up-to-date by providing changes and information about their company; they can also access important claim information related to their WCB account and industry.
As an employer, you are also easily able to:
- Monitor and review your claim history.
- Identify potential safety issues by reviewing your claim history.
- Understand your rate impact if your performance improves.
- Receive an email notifying you a physician has completed the physician's report so you can determine what your worker can do. See how much can they lift, if they can bend, twist, drive, and climb.
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Dealing With Unused Vacation Days
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Usually by the fall, employees have used much of their paid time off (PTO) on spring and summer trips. But with hardly anywhere to go during the COVID-19 pandemic, unused vacation days have piled up at many companies – a phenomenon called PTO hoarding.
How should your organization handle this emerging dilemma? Should you encourage employees to take PTO? Depending on your PTO policy, those leftover days will either be lost, rolled over, or paid out.
By considering the impact on both your employees and your business, you can develop a strategy to address a surplus of unused vacation days that puts everyone in the best position for the future. As an employer in an uncertain economy, you may also be trying to conserve cash and would rather:
- Avoid paying out employees for more unused time off than you usually do at year-end
- Prevent the extra days from rolling into the next year
In this case, making formal changes to your PTO program is an option you can explore if it seems necessary to put your business in the best position going forward.
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Transitioning to a Human Resource Information System
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Your organization possibly keeps paper files, uses multiple Excel sheets or a combination of both to manage various HR-related information. If so, it can be time-consuming and difficult even for a small organization. Perhaps it's time to transition to a Human Resource Information System (HRIS).
A HRIS is an integrated software that can be used to perform all HR activities like recruiting, payroll, attendance, and more. It helps maintain all the information related to an employee - a centralized database that stores applicant tracking functions, onboarding, employee demographics, compensation and benefits choices, time-tracking, and so much more. It's also the hub for your employee data with up-to-date information on your organization's hiring trends and employee retention.
An effective HRIS can lead to significant gains in productivity and decreased costs from your people operations team by performing typical functions like these:
- Streamlining employee onboarding
- A centralized database of employee demographics
- Retention and succession planning
- Time-tracking, leave management and scheduling
- Payroll and benefits administration
- Data analytics for in-depth reporting
- Employee self-service options
- Training records
- Organization chart
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Creating a Hybrid Work Model Policy
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Many companies are transitioning from their remote work arrangement to a hybrid work model. Google expects a part of their workforce to continue working remotely, with another portion having a hybrid schedule of three days in and two out. Apple recently communicated that it's shifting into a three-day workweek for most of its employees. Meanwhile, Facebook offers the option to continue working from home, even for its international employees.
Many employees enjoy working from home and want to continue doing so at least partially. However, a recent report from Microsoft found that more than half of its employees feel overworked, and a considerable part feels exhausted. One reason for these feelings is that the employees face a significant increase in digital collaboration. These include virtual meetings, chats, emails, and groups working on files together. Overall, it's resulting in conflicting signals from both companies and the staff. Work life and home life are being merged into one and some people have a hard time separating the two when they work from home.
So, how can business owners and managers determine an optimal policy for a hybrid model?
A hybrid work model policy establishes the rules and expectations of the employees who have flexible work weeks with a mix of office and home work days. It doesn't matter if the company is only planning to employ remote workers for a limited amount of time – they need to have a hybrid work policy for a hybrid model.
The policy should set out clear expectations of availability, days in and out of the office, communication methods and clear job accountabilities. The key is that everyone knows the 'rules' for working form home and in the office and the amount of flexibility offered.
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