A Novel Way to Slash North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Costs?
The experts who audit, debate, and refine the North Carolina workers’ compensation system spend a tremendous amount of time identifying the system’s inefficiencies. To maximize efficacy and minimize drag on the system as a whole, experts aim to identify:
• how insurance companies might be overcharging employers;
• how employers might be inadequately training their workers;
• how workers might not be engaging in proper safety, rehabilitation, self-care;
• etc
In this blog post, we will explore a novel approach to improving the North Carolina workers’ compensation system. This approach involves improving communication across all elements of the system, so that the feelings and needs of relevant parties get heard more clearly.
First principles: it’s clear that the participants in the system often feel like they are in opposition with one another. Employers strive to “protect” themselves from high premiums and workers who inflate their disability claims. Employees, on the other hand, “fight for every penny” and stay on guard to make sure that their employers and insurers treat them fairly. Insurance companies, meanwhile, watch their bottom lines. And the state strives to ensure order and fairness in the system.
So most people see these forces in opposition. But there may be another way of looking at our problems – a way suggested by Marshall Rosenberg, creator of the idea of “Nonviolent Communication.” According to Rosenberg, most individuals communicate in a violent language that he’s termed “jackal.” Most people – and most institutions – spend a great deal of time analyzing, judging, and labeling others. In Marshall’s alternative paradigm – what he calls “Giraffe” talk – the goal is not to see parties in opposition but rather to see them as each having feelings and needs. Once these feelings and needs get surfaced, it’s easy to find so-called “win-win” solutions. In other words, an employer and her employee may believe that they stand in opposition. But maybe that’s just because the employee doesn’t understand his employer’s feelings and needs. And vice versa. If both parties could only spend some time talking in the “giraffe” idiom, perhaps they could understand each other better and work together to develop more effective solutions.
In an event, employees who need help with their benefits claims often get confused about how to deal with recalcitrant or uncooperative insurers, employers, and other parties. A consultation with a proven North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm may help you significantly.
More Web Resources:
Non-Violent Communication
Jackal vs. Giraffe
