It is not uncommon for me to hear some real horror stories about human resource management issues in O&P companies. Lately, there seem to be more and more Workers' Compensation claims. I won’t go so far as to say there is fraud, but recently there was one I heard about where a brand new, first-day-on-the-job employee is claiming debilitating personal injury from an automatic door. Yep. I won’t go into details here as this case is ongoing. But work comp is involved. Another case involved drug use. The owners helped this person through rehab, paid to get the employee’s car out of a repo situation, and then the employee stole from them. They fired the employee, who then sued for unemployment—and won!

For the most part, we are very small businesses. We do not have HR staff or even a single HR expert on our payroll. The owner does it all. We are pushing marbles uphill every day, and it is nearly impossible to keep up with everything. Then something totally unbelievable smacks you right upside the head. In employment law, there are many little things you can say or do that add up to really big consequences. You are probably not even aware that what you are doing is potentially putting your company, and your life’s work, at risk.

By now, you have probably heard that OPIE and OPIE Choice have merged into one company. A member benefit of Choice was access to an HR firm that provides free consultation to members. As part of our new Tier structure, Hosted OPIE customers can now access that service. Our case with the drug user is unique (I hope) in that after they finally washed their hands of that employee, the person they hired to replace her did the exact same thing. But this time, the owners reached out to the OPIE HR firm, and when this new person sued for unemployment, the employee lost. The premium savings alone almost paid for their OPIE! In the current case, the owner is working with the HR firm who is providing guidance along the way (and I did get permission to share this story). My point here is that there is way more to OPIE than just software. We want to help you succeed, and we know this is a real pain point for your small business. Please, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager if there is anything you are facing that is not in your wheelhouse!

Did you know that in some states, it is not only legal but recommended that you get a medical history on your staff? Check your work comp provider to see if they have forms they will provide you. This helps to reduce the scope of a potential claim against your company if someone tries to get paid for something that has already been disclosed. To that end, I know some states recommend an annual update to that form for all staff. We talk about Medicare fraud, phishing attempts to steal your data, and other activities you need to guard against. Unfortunately, these personal injury claims are another form that scams can take. Don’t be the low-hanging fruit!