Ep. 641 Critical Steps That Protect Employees and Your Business Following a Work-Related Injury
Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley sits down with Greg Garcia, Partner and Landscape Group Account Executive, to talk about the critical steps that business owners should take to protect employees and the company following a work-related injury.
Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Greg Garcia
Producer/Editor: Megan Lockhart
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production
© Copyright 2026. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Transcript
Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive. I’m your host, Alyssa Burley, and I’m joined by Greg Garcia, Partner with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in providing insurance solutions to landscape companies.
Today, we’re going to talk about the critical steps that business owners should take to protect employees and the company following a work-related injury.
Greg, welcome to the show.
Greg Garcia: Hey Alyssa, thanks for having me.
AB: Of course, So you recently wrote an article where you address best practices for employers handling workplace injuries. Why is it so important for companies to report workplace injuries immediately, even when an injury appears minor at first?
GG: Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, the scenario is a work related injury occurs, now what do we do next, right? And that's sometimes a critical step, and when the injury seems minor, it's a step that gets overlooked, and that step is reporting that injury to the carrier. That can be either with a lot of work comp carriers have nurse triage now, but somehow getting that information over to the work comp carrier so they can start managing that claim. This is important because they can start looking at details of the claim. looking to get that injured employee treatment as quickly as possible. And really what we've seen is by doing this early, it helps prevent a smaller claim and to potentially blowing up into something a little bit bigger and a little bit larger. And then finally, the last key point is you're giving that information to the carrier when the information is fresh in your head, right? You're not waiting a week or 10 days and saying, oh, how did Greg actually get hurt? What actually did happen? So it's real-time information. And you'll notice if anybody's ever taken a look at their loss runs, it says, you know, date of incident and then date reported. And they want to see those two dates, you know, within a couple of days of each other as best practices. So if you're within that window, a carrier is going to really look favorable at your account when they're looking to maybe look at renewal pricing and things like that. So yeah, that's a critical step is reporting to the carrier so they can start managing that claim.
AB: Okay sounds good. In many industries like landscaping or construction where employees are typically out in the field, employers might have trouble at first thinking of modified work for an injured employee and lean towards not offering it. How does offering modified duty to an injured employee benefit them.
GG: No, that's a great question. And I think with the landscape industry, very much blue collar industry. So another critical step is making sure the clinic that you're using to send your injured employees to know that you have a return to work program. That way, when an injured employee does go to that clinic. they're leaving with work restrictions, right? And that's where that modified duty term comes into play because we want to be able to offer those employees modified duty. And there's a lot of benefits to that employee. First and foremost, they continue to earn their regular wages, which is critical for anybody in today's economy. The other thing is communication stays strong, right? You have that employee that's continuing to show up. You're continuing to check in on them. So that's a critical step to making sure the claim is getting handled properly. And lastly, and probably most importantly, Bringing that employee back on a return to work basis demonstrates that that company really cares for the well-being of their employees.
AB: Yeah, that's probably the most important piece of it is that employee feeling like somebody actually cares.
GG: Absolutely.
AB: So what's the benefit to the employer?
GG: Yeah, we kind of hit on this, we just touched on this, but I think the biggest thing is it shows commitment to your employees, creates that strong culture, which will help you retain your top talent, but also... Others are going to see that.
Oh, this landscape company takes care of their employees when they get hurt. They're not just, you know, on to the next. This guy or gal is injured. We have no use for them anymore. So it really paints your company in a great light. And from a financial standpoint offering modified duty because you're continuing to pay that employee's wages keeps that claim from entering the temporary disability where the carrier would start to pay two-thirds of that employee's wages. And once you start paying out temporary disability, that can have an impact on your experience spot, which we'll touch on, I think, later in this episode. So there's just so many benefits to not only the employee, but the employer as well.
AB: Yeah, it's maintaining that employee's regular pay is significantly less expensive than paying inflated costs on workers' comp over the next five years.
GG: So true. Absolutely. Yeah, couldn't agree more.
AB: What impact can prompt claim reporting, which you talked a little bit about earlier, and a strong return-to-work program have on workers' compensation costs?
GG: Yeah, we'll kind of round this thing out. And I think that's another really good question, and I feel like we kind of touched on the importance of prompt claim reporting, getting the carrier to really start to look at that claim early, start managing it and getting that employee the proper treatment early. That's pretty self-explanatory.
AB: It's a good way to keep it small.
GG: Yes, right. Keep the claim cost down and then we go into the benefits of the return to work. And I really want to touch on the benefits it has in regards to the experience mod and really controlling that experience mod. You know, I know all of our clients when we're doing our claim reviews and we're going over the KPI dashboard, they have a pretty good idea. how an experience mod is rated. And we're not going to get into that today. That could be a whole other episode of how an experience mod is calculated. But keeping temporary disability off claims when possible really will control your experience mod and ultimately hopefully keep that experience mod below that 1.00 threshold, which would give you that credit mod. By doing that, you're going to see your work comp premium stabilize. And you won't see any bigger swings high or low in your work comp premiums or potentially, right? There's always the one-offs and things like that. And finally, kind of on a side note, I think with the increase in litigated claims, and this is what we're hearing not only from the carriers, but what we're seeing firsthand with clients and other people within the industry, having that injured employee.
Being at work with the return to work program, you know, we talked about enhances the communication, shows that you care for that employee. They're a lot less likely to probably go seek out an attorney feeling like, oh, my landscape company doesn't care about me. I need to go get an attorney because I feel like I'm not getting the things I'm deserved. Or they can be at home and maybe hear an ad on the radio or the TV or what have you. So I think having a strong return to work program not only builds company culture, but it also can reduce the likelihood of litigation in the future for some of these claims that can be litigated in the future.
GG: Yeah, it sounds like common sense, right? But yeah, it's putting it into practice. And I know a lot of my clients are doing it, but I thought this would be a great topic for today.
AB: Yeah, sounds like if you do what's best for the employee, it's going to be what's best for the company.
AB: Greg, if listeners have questions about how to handle a work-related injury, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?
GG: Shoot me an email at ggarcia@ranchomesa.com that's the best way to get a hold of me and I can help you out.
AB: Greg, thanks for joining me in StudioOne.
GG: Thanks for having me, Alyssa.
AB: Thank you for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.