8 hiring strategies to reduce workers' comp claims
By Jenny C. McCune • Bankrate.com

What you don't know can hurt you, especially when it comes to screening employees for workers' compensation issues.

Unfortunately, there are many telling questions that federal law won't let you ask. Inquiring as to whether the job candidate has sought workers' compensation before is verboten. So is asking how much sick time she took off at her last job. Ditto for questions about medical conditions or disabilities. They're all off limits.

But you don't have to hire blindly. Here's how to screen employees -- and stay on the right side of the law -- so that your new worker is not your next workers' comp case.

Advertise the job and its requirements
Spell out in your classified precisely what the job entails. If the position demands a worker be able to lift 50 pounds five times a day or an average of six hours a day, say that. Explaining the requirements up front may dissuade unsuitable candidates from applying. Even if it doesn't, it could help your company if it ever faces a workers' comp or wrongful termination case.

Require a medical physical for all new hires
You can request a physical, but only after a job offer has been made, explains Ann Kiernan, a New Brunswick, N.J.-based attorney and trainer with Fair Measures Corp., a national provider of legal training for managers. Passing the physical can be a condition of employment. And make the medical physical apply to all new hires. Singling out one particular person is discriminatory and against the law.

Ask the proper probing questions
While you can't ask specifically about workers' comp, you can quiz an applicant about education, training and skills for the position. A prospective employer also can ask whether the applicant can satisfy the job's requirements or essential functions. And you can ask how much time off the applicant took in a previous job (but not why) and whether he left his last job in good standing.

Listen to what job applicants have to say
You may not be able to ask certain questions, but if a candidate volunteers information, use it. "Remember, it is fine to listen to anything they say as long as you didn't ask the wrong question," says Patti Branco, a management consultant and trainer. "If they open up about the horrible accidents they have been in and how they missed 50 percent of work, how they are fighting with their former company for money, how they think they have carpal tunnel and a tooth that needs another root canal, be all ears!"

Involve multiple managers
"Have 20 percent of the questions be the same," says Arlene Vernon, president of HRx Inc., an Eden Prairie, Minn., training and consulting firm. "See if the candidate gives the same answers. People tend to give the same answers when they're telling the truth, but most people won't tell the same lie twice."

Ask for show instead of tell
Request the candidate demonstrate that he can physically do the job. "Maybe just do this with your finalists, but ask them to show how they would do the job or have them explain how they would unload the truck and what safety precautions they'd take," says Vernon.

Verify application information
"How someone performed in the past is a pretty good projection of how they will perform in the future," says Joel Goldberg, president of Aurico Reports Inc., a pre-employment screening company in Arlington Heights, Ill. Goldberg says that much of his work isn't delving into criminal records and other skullduggery. Instead, it's merely confirming what the job candidate has put on his application. "What we mainly do is verify the veracity of the information," Goldberg says. "One out of three job applications contain falsified information. May or may not be intentional, like off by 50 cents an hour on how they're paid." But like unexplained gaps in employment, any discrepancies are red flags.

Check references
According to HRx's Vernon, most job applicants fail to get clearance before they use someone as a reference. Caught unawares, the reference may be more willing to tell the truth than to obfuscate. In any event, a would-be employer has nothing to lose and can gain valuable information by talking to a job candidate's references.

Jenny C. McCune is a contributing editor based in Montana.

-- Posted: Oct. 30, 2002