Worker’s Compensation is a requirement for many businesses across Florida. As soon as you have a certain number of employees, the state will require you to have this type of insurance. What you need to know is that the cost of insurance can increase throughout the year as well as from year-to-year – and there are various ways to stop this from happening.

OFFER EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Employees need to be trained on how to do the job, how to use various types of equipment, and what they need to do in order to stay safe. If you don’t provide any training, you make assumptions that employees will automatically know what they need to do – and that’s not fair to them.

Additionally, if an employee does get hurt and you can show that they were trained on how to do the job properly, it may save you some money. Employees may try to sue you when they get hurt, and this is what will cost you on your workers' compensation insurance. When you have documentation that employees were trained properly and know how to do the job differently than how they did it when they got injured, it may prevent you from having to pay a settlement during a lawsuit.

CREATE A SAFETY COMMITTEE

A safety committee is a great thing to have within the workplace. This may be comprised of various department heads or employees from across your organization. The safety committee should meet frequently and conduct a tour of the facilities to identify any issues that could cause an accident. Additionally, you should discuss the various accidents that occurred since the last meeting and find out how they could have been avoided.

MINIMIZE ACCIDENTS

It’s important to try and minimize accidents whenever possible. The more accidents you have, the more it’s going to cost on workers' compensation insurance because the insurance company is paying more. Each time you have an accident, it’s possible that your premium will go up. By working to train your employees, and doing other things that will minimize accidents, you protect the cost of your policy considerably.

WORK WITH A GOOD INSURANCE COMPANY

You also want to work with the good insurance company that is financially stable and who will work with you on your premiums. If you have an insurance company that is going to raise your rate every time you have accident, it may start to cost you dramatically throughout the year. Instead, you want to find a company that is going to understand that some accidents will happen.

This is when it’s helpful to talk with an independent insurance agent and learn more about the various insurance companies that are out there. Their knowledge and expertise will be able to guide you through the various companies and tell you which ones are going to be the more forgiving, more stable companies to go with.