Risky business - or- Who can you trust?  In the mid-1990's, insurance brokers became more active in forming trusts because workers' compensation coverage, required by every company, was getting so expensive. Today, a growing insolvency crisis, born of years of lax oversight by state regulators, is threatening to leave thousands of small business owing $600 million or more to NY insurance pools they trusted to pay claims from workplace death and injury.  Taxpayers may be forced to pick up the tab if lawsuits or other means can't recover the deficits.  NY's Workers' Comp Bd, which regulates the trusts, received its first audits in 2003, nearly a decade after the group insurance pools rose to popularity.  By 2006, the first of these trusts became insolvent.  Between 2007 and 2008, at least seven trusts administered by Compensation Risk Managers unexpectedly defaulted.  A state's comp board suit seeks more than $400 million and accuses CRM of inaccurate financial reports hiding the depth of their problems. Group self-insured trusts in NY reached a peak in 2007 at 18,000+ active employer members compared to 4,250 last year.  Weakness in the structure is the bulk of the decision-making is done by individuals whose interests do not always align with those of members.   Financial problems at the Builders' Self Insurance Trust surfaced under new administration, citing trustees' deep discounting of premiums to members and unwillingness to pass along fees charged by regulators. It became insolvent by early 2009.  There is a moratorium on the formation of new trusts and a task force earlier this summer recommended ending the remaining group of self-insured trusts.  The more successful trusts, like First Cardinal Corp. of Latham, which administered a number of trusts with a surplus, were those with good administration.  

To be or not to be - retired?  Two years ago attitudes expressed were 100% of workers said they planned to retire, with only 1% unsure of when it was possible.   An recent online poll among 1,478 UK workers undertaken by ICM Research on behalf of Baring Asset Management revealed the number of people no longer expecting to retire has jumped to 15 percent (ages 55 to 74) and 36 percent (66 and older).  The Institute of Occupational Medicine has warned that welcome though it may be to remove the default retirement age, managing health needs of older workers could prove a challenge for employers.  While older workers tend to be more accurate and can call on accumulated knowledge and experience, age-related physiological changes tend to have a bigger effect.

OH professionals and job security.  As the government plans to phase out the default retirement age (DRA) next year, extra responsibility on occupational health professionals may result to maintain the health and productivity of older workers.  Supporting and maintaining health and well-being at work will require input from a range of professionals in occupational health, public health, safety, occupational psychology, human resources and social policy - all of which become more pressing issues for employers.  

Feedback isn't just a noisy mic.  Nor is it a one way street.  HR creates the tools for improving performance but managers must be trained and motivated to participate in putting them in place.  Successful managers at any level know what motivates their employees.  Surprise reviews and the use of reviews to "get rid" of under-performing workers isn't the road to employee buy-in.  When performance reviews have a pre-determined outcome, the process isn't working.  Want employee ownership of performance?  Outline expectations, create give-and-take feedback, discuss training and development needs, ensure employee opportunities and needs were captured and actioned.  

Workers receiving treatment for depression are twice as likely to use short-term disability as their co-workers who have never been treated for mental health issues, according to Spencer's Benefits Reports.  The study also speculates that if these same employees were given therapy along with anti-depressant prescriptions it would result in substantial savings for employers since one of the biggest reasons for their high rate of absenteeism is failure to take their medications as prescribed.   

Workers' comp revisited.  In California in 2004, an essential part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reforms dropped the pure-premium rates to $1.76 per $100 of payroll - compared with $4.80 per $100 prior to the reforms.  The cost to businesses of workers' compensation could go up as much as 29.6 % this year - still below 2004 levels but if the state isn't careful, it could get back into difficulty.  The hike is being recommended by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, a nonprofit bureau made up of the more than 400 companies that sell workers' comp insurance in California.