Q-COMP

When developing suitable duties be creative about how you can meet your business needs and priorities. Think of tasks and projects that need attention but no one has time for. This could include developing new systems, tackling outstanding administrative tasks, sourcing new business or researching new ideas. Your worker may not have all the required skills - break down projects or jobs into tasks and you could discover opportunities for your worker to be involved and contribute.

Use these ideas to help you find alternatives where there are no obvious suitable duties:

Administration

• Do you have a list of tasks to be done that never get actioned?
• What needs to be prepared for future projects in the next three to 12 months?
  • processing tax receipts
  • data entry and checking
  • filing and re-organising business files.

Sales/promotion

• Does your business have needs for any extra promotion?
  • phone sales or calling clients
  • developing content for promotions
  • conducting market research on competitors
  • doing a small scale client satisfaction survey
  • analysing business sales information
  • updating client contact databases.

Labour

• Do any other areas of your business need an extra hand or temporary support?
  • cleaning up/organising around the work site
  • researching/buying equipment for the business
  • re-organising bookshelves to improve access to business documents.

Organisation

• Could your worker help organise a certain part of the business?
  • organising parts and materials
  • finding new suppliers for parts/materials including cheaper or better materials.

Training

• Could your worker participate in any training which they can bring back to share in the workplace?
  • computer courses
  • manual handling courses
  • technical skills.

Business improvement

• developing new systems to further improve the business
• improve current business processes
• write part content of a training manual
• work on a quality assurance system.

Deployment

• Could the worker go to another department?
• Could the worker exchange with another colleague?
• Could the worker train staff in another area to perform certain skills?

Host employment

Host employment is when another employer agrees to host an injured worker at their workplace. Programs normally run from three to six weeks. The insurer pays the worker's wages and insures the host employer against any workers' compensation claims. Contact your insurer to arrange a host employment.

The insurer is responsible for:

• paying the worker's entitlements during the host employment program
• developing the program
• coordinating and monitoring the program.

In some cases the injured worker is unable to return to the same job with the same employer. For example, the worker may have a psychological injury or there are human resource or industrial relations issues to consider. These issues need to be managed when planning for return to work. Contact your insurer to discuss alternatives.