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May 04, 2005 at 08:00 PM
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Industry-specific and demographic disability income claims data can give employers a way to benchmark their own disability experience.
Looking at claims patterns also can give you, the benefits professional, a better understanding of a potential client’s benefits needs before you even pick up the phone to make an appointment with the benefits manager. You can use claims patterns to suggest programs that can address the medical conditions and disabilities most commonly affecting the client’s workers.
Because the 10% of the employees who are out on disability leave in any given year typically account for about 50% of the employees’ medical expenditures, these suggestions can have a noticeable impact on employee health, employee productivity and the employer’s bottom line.
MetLife has found, for example, that businesses with call center operations are likely to face particular challenges: Although call center employees may represent only 20% to 25% of a company’s full-time employees, they may account for more than 60% of its total short-term disability claims and family and medical leave absences.
Workers at many call center operations experience high levels of stress. As a result, call center employees may be particularly prone to accidents, workplace injuries, and musculoskeletal and psychiatric disabilities, which ultimately can lead to an elevated number of absences and disability claims.
The good news is that giving call center managers a better understanding of these trends can help lead to small investments that produce significant increases in an employer’s ability to keep workers active at work.
Solutions can be as simple as investing in employee assistance programs or improving prescription drug plan coverage for medications that can improve employee health and productivity.
A Tale Of Demographics
Just as industry-specific data can tell one story about an employer, workforce demographics also can tell a story.
