What we're focusing on first
We recognise this is a difficult time for many New Zealanders, and businesses in particular. So, our focus over the next few months will be on streamlining our internal processes and making some initial improvements to how ACC administers the programme. We’ve identified operational improvements that we can focus on immediately, and these are outlined below.
Note that these changes are in keeping with the current Accredited Employers Programme Framework (Framework). Any changes to the Framework are made by the Minister for ACC in consultation with stakeholders.
We’re committed to working with our customers during our detailed design, building and testing of these operational improvements, when the time is right. We won’t make any changes to until we’ve confirmed with our customers the best way to implement the changes.
Improving the quality of our data
To improve the experience of injured employees in AEP, we want to make initial improvements to our data collection, storage and analytics capability.We'll start by reviewing current data collected and identify new data requirements that will help to better monitor programme performance.
We'll need to understand the impact on our customers of collecting more information, without this becoming an administrative burden.
Improving the experience for employees in AEP
Going forward, we want to introduce worker engagement and participation requirements to AE contracts. Before we do so, we need to understand the impact on our customers of increased measurement as part of these requirements. We’d also like to better understand the barriers to gathering employee feedback.
Some AEs already have processes in place to gather feedback from their employees about both claims and injury management, and the effectiveness of their wider ‘health and safety in the workplace’ system. We'll need to work with our customers to understand what’s currently working.
Driving continuous improvement of the programme
There are two parts we’d like to focus on here.
Firstly, to improve operational efficiency we’d like to identify ways to improve processes related to claims invoicing, such as reactivated claims.
Secondly, we want to improve the information about AEP available online for our customers and how we can build knowledge sharing ‘communities’ amongst employers in the programme.
How to get involved
We’ll keep our customers updated on our progress; we’ll provide regular updates to customers via our email mailing list. If you'd like to join this mailing list, email us.
Email enhancingaep@acc.co.nz
There will also be opportunities for our customers to help test and provide feedback on improvements to the programme going forward.
If you’d like to get involved with one or more of these focus areas outlined above, email us to register your interest and we'll be in touch.
Email enhancingaep@acc.co.nz
