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After growing up next door to each other in Ankeny, Eric West and John Kruzich have opened Employment Cost Solutions together.

“Our fourth-grade teacher told us not to play together, and now we own a business together,” said Kruzich, chief operating officer of ECS. “Things have changed.”

The company, which has operations in Denver and Des Moines, helps other companies limit workers’ compensation costs and increase productivity.

“We ensure that (companies) are hiring the most suitable candidates for the job opportunity,” said West, president of the company.

ECS offers functional capacity evaluations (a systematic process designed to assess physical and functional capacities) from WorkWell Systems Inc. and conducts pre-hiring screenings. Based on the analysis, the company can determine whether the physical abilities of the potential employees match the physical demands of the job.

“We focus on the preventive side because our objective is to keep costs down,” Kruzich said.

ECS, which helps injured employees return to their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible, also provides objective injury assessments for case workers, attorneys and the injured workers by providing thorough evaluations.

Kruzich, who received a master’s degree in occupational therapy from Colorado State University, got the idea for the business from his career experiences. He saw the potential and shared the concept with West, who “pushed” them into action.

“As we developed the business idea, Iowa seemed like a good place to start with the different industries and insurance companies,” Kruzich said.

In Iowa, employers de-cide whom injured employees see to be treated. “Because Iowa is an employer state,” West said, “we can provide a lot more value to business owners than in other states.”

Companies in industries with high workers’ compensation costs have become clients of ECS since the opening of its office in February. Those sectors include medical, landscape, warehousing, manufacturing and transportation businesses.

Besides expanding their services in Colorado, the “next logical step” for the partners is to offer on-site rehabilitation. The ECS founders started the business with a limited number of services because they want the clients to dictate what they offer.