Safety and Lower Workers Compensation Insurance Costs Go Hand in Hand
Creating a safe working environment for your employees is one of the best things you can do to help control the cost of Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Whether you run an office, a warehouse, or a manufacturing facility, there are certain steps that apply to the main structure of any successful safety program. Here are a few:
Set the Standard
Create an atmosphere and culture of safety; it will spread to your workers. This can be as simple as carpeting that is free of rips and holes, clearly marked hazards, clean floors, and machines with real guards in place. If you set the right standard, everything will follow.
Create an Emergency Response Team
Your workforce may be the most efficient and responsive team during the course of regular business, and you may assume that they would react the same way in an emergency, but too often that efficiency and responsiveness turns to confusion and chaos during an emergency situation. Employees need to know ahead of time what their responsibilities are in the event of an emergency, so they can react quickly like a group of well-trained marines rather than the bumbling Stooges.
First, create a team that is a mix of serious-minded workers, supervisors, and management that understand that – in the event of an emergency - lives may depend on them. Make sure every employee knows who those team members are and how to reach them. Consider creating a special code for emergencies or maybe a special name tag for members of this team. Then, establish protocol for reporting an injury along with the chain of command. Everyone on that team needs to understand what his or her responsibility is – whether that’s calling 911, applying CPR, or alerting other staff.
Finally, stage a few “accidents” for practice drills. Don’t let employees know ahead of time and start easy, working your way up to accidents with increasing severity.
Communicate!
Your goal with Workers’ Compensation is to report zero claims, but if you do find yourself filing a claim, make sure your adjuster and carrier are good at communicating with the injured worker. Set standards and make sure they are followed. An injured worker should receive a call from a triage nurse or the adjuster within 24 hours. The injured worker’s manager should call him or her once a week to check in on them. Let the employee know that he or she matters and that you care about their welfare.
Lack of communication has been the down-fall of many marriages and statistically, it’s one of the biggest complaints of insurance claimants. Too often, injured workers don’t know what is going on, what doctor they can and can’t go to, etc. Effective communication decreases litigation, gets workers back to work more quickly, and keeps the claim moving forward to a resolution.
Get Upper Management Involved
My dad used to say to me, “Do as I say, not as I do.” How do you think that went? Not very well. Good leaders lead by example. If upper management repeatedly breaks the rules, you’ll lose whatever cooperation you’ve achieved with your employees. Safety standards need to apply to everyone, even if that means writing up someone in senior management for a safety violation. Your safety program needs to be enforced 100 percent of the time.
We Can Help You Save on Workers Comp Insurance
To find out more ways to save on workers’ compensation insurance, contact American Insuring Group at (800) 947-1270 or (610) 775-3848.
