Budgeting for Work Injury Prevention & Safety Risk Management Strategy

As we begin to budget for strategic objectives in 2015, several work safety topics centered around an important theme come to light.  Posts ranging from safety training to workers comp/EMR risk, the importance of conducting fall hazard assessments and engineering fall prevention design — each capture elements of what I believe to be the annual theme for our blog, and what may be the most notable national work safety theme of 2014: Preventive Safety Risk Management Strategy.

Comprehending and preparing for the preventive work safety trend will prepare you for 2015 budgeting and set your organization on the path towards a beneficial work safety culture. While this may sound complicated, strategy setting will become easier after considering the benefits of preventive safety strategy.

First, Consider the Benefits of Safety Risk Management

The concept of pursuing Injury Prevention tactics for Safety Risk Management is not a revolutionary approach, nor is it a simple strategy to follow. The motivation behind injury prevention strategies that minimize risk to reap long term safety benefit is based in the complementary advantages provided by a preventative safety culture. Risk prevention strategy involves foresight and planning, and requires a greater upfront investment cost. Over time it will result in fewer injuries, worker lost time reductions, improved workers comp rates, and other indirect savings and benefits. From this perspective, preventative safety risk management ultimately provides inherent value to businesses that are financially stable and well-managed.  These businesses are typically set up to plan ahead strategically and invest accordingly. If they are able to effectively implement safety risk management strategy, they will thrive when compared to protection-focused strategies with stringent safety controls.

Safety risk management investments provide ROI via reduced workers comp claim costs, less lost worker time, culture and morale benefits

…then brainstorm Injury Prevention Strategies

The elements of successful injury prevention strategies are not unlike those of a typical work safety program, with respect to procedural elements. Hazard assessments, incident recording, policies and training remain standard work safety objectives. The subtle difference between injury prevention through safety risk management versus protection and control strategies is that prevention policies and controls are engineered to prevent risk, as opposed to simply identifying risk areas and protecting workers. For example, while injury risk hazard assessments are an element of most work safety programs, an overarching preventive strategy will interject that step into the initial processes of any new development or work activity.  The goal is circumventing, not simply mitigating, potential risk areas. With this in mind, preventive strategy is most effective when work safety culture is established and new initiatives are supported by an acknowledged organizational safety commitment.

Reassess work processes with a risk prevention approach and inject the process into strategic planning

Preventive Safety Incentives & Training Ideas

In support of building a work safety culture that values and supports injury prevention ahead of protective measures, safety incentives should be structured to reward preventative innovation as opposed to strict adherence to performance metrics such as injury rates or lost time. For example, an organization might hold a contest that challenges employees to propose an injury risk prevention strategy that reduces injury risk for the work process that had the highest injury rate the previous year. This approach delivers the strategic preventative message while working to solve a problem, and also helps to increase employee commitment through involvement. Similarly, training documentation should emphasize the importance of avoiding unnecessary risks as much as utilizing the proper protective equipment or following the recommended procedure. In an injury prevention safety environment, the goal should be to efficiently avoid risks, not plow through them with precautionary measures.

Safety policies that require PPE can often be improved via equipment investments that increase efficiency and reduce injury risk

Now You’re Ready to Budget Your Injury Prevention Risk Management Investments

We at the Safety & Numbers blog encourage you to invest in injury prevention engineering strategies and equipment as you write the 2015 budget. Establishing preventative work safety as a cultural value will not only offer the ‘usual suspect’ benefits (monetary expenses, less lost worker time, improved morale, etc.). Over time it will provide indirect benefits such as workers comp rate and hiring advantages. Need help with your injury prevention safety planning? Contact IAS

 

Know the Standards: OSHA Fall Protection Compliance

Most informed industry professionals are aware that OSHA has emphasized the importance of awareness and compliance to fall protection safety standards that are designed to reduce injury risk and fatalities from falls from heights.  What may be less clear to business owners in both construction and general industry is OSHA’s dedication to proactively prosecute violations to the letter of the law.  Several recent examples of OSHA’s commitment to fall protection injury prevention have shed light on risk areas for small business owners to be aware of.

OSHA Fall Protection Policy Enforcement

In February this year, OSHA drafted and delivered a warning to the communication tower industry of the increasing fatality rate in that industry, it’s relationship to fall protection, and how strictly OSHA will be enforcing fall protection standards as a result.  Another example of OSHA’s firmness on fall protection is in their willingness to prosecute compliance gaps even when a business has taken significant precautions to protect employees.  OSHA attempted to prosecute Ryder Transportation Services for an injury to a subcontractor at their site for a fall fatality through a roof skylight that was safely inaccessible to employees.

OSHA Fall Protection Standards

The most important point for concerned business owners in light of OSHA’s increased emphasis on fall protection compliance is their strictness and strategy for standard enforcement.  OSHA may potentially cite your business not only for injuries resulting from a failure to provide fall protection, but also in cases where the business did not conduct an appropriate hazard assessment, even at seemingly low-risk heights of 4′. This result is effectively a double whammy effect for a single employee fall incident.

As a result, while it’s important to provide proper fall protection, it’s even more critical to conduct and document the proper precautionary procedures for any potential risk area, to save money and administrative battles in the case that a fall injury does occur.  Here’s a brief summary of OSHA’s fall protection standards policy, with this in mind.  Of course, anyone subject to OSHA violations should fully research the topic on their own with OSHA or a certified compliance consultant.

Construction Industry Fall Protection Compliance

Found in Section 1926.501, these can generally be summed up to require businesses to provide fall protection (guardrail systems, safety net systems, personal fall arrest systems) on walking or working surfaces with an ‘unprotected side or edge which is six feet or more above the lower‘.

General Industry Fall Protection Compliance

General industry standards are also stringent, with Section 1910.23 stated to include ‘every wall opening from which there is a drop of more than four feet‘, with that also applying to open-side floor or platforms.  This requirement stipulates that risk areas be guarded by a standard railing or other means of fall protection.

And remember, the typical fall protection standards citations could be coupled with a citation for Section 1910.132 for failing to conduct a hazard assessment.

Fall Protect Your Business for Compliance

The application of these OSHA standards and enforcement policy strategies can thus be applied to a variety of settings, ranging from loading docks and flatbed truck beds to onsite or offsite machinery and equipment.  Business owner/operators should be aware that even for fall hazards of 4′ or less, a hazard assessment must be conducted and fall protection compliance equipment provided.

Trucker® & IAS Custom Access Fall Protection Products

Of course, we at Innovative Access Solutions are well-prepared to help with your flatbed truck and loading dock fall protection, starting with safety engineered Trucker trailer access ladders and working platforms.  In addition, IAS has a great deal of experience providing custom fall protection access equipment to machinery/equipment and multi-level walking or working surfaces at manufacturing facilities, dockyards, construction and mining sites, and public/retail settings.

To learn how IAS can design a fall protection access solution for your business, call our engineering team at (800) 388-6884 or submit our Contact form on IAScustom.com.

Fortune 500 Contractor Provides Testimonial for Trucker®

IAS produces access ladders for a wide variety of customers across the country. IAS products are safe, durable and convenient for applications ranging from contractor work safety to boat boarding at the lake. This versatility has earned raves from safety minded contractors and mobility challenged individuals alike.

Here are two examples of testimonials for work safety and optimal accessibility.

Fortune 500 Trucker Ladder Testimonial

The Trucker Series Trailer AccessTrucker® ladders are designed for simple and safe access to any truck trailer.  This safety manager at a Fortune 500 construction contractor and long time IAS customer has great things to say about Trucker® trailer access ladders.

I have utilized your products on jobs I have worked on for the past 4 years, once we started using your Trucker and Drop Deck ladders we realized the great benefits and quality the IAS products provided.  Since using your products our yard bosses and operators have asked for them by name.

Any time I show up on a new job, your ladders are one of my first purchases.  Our truck loading and unloading procedures now call for your ladders specifically, they are in such high demand they have to be assigned to crews and locked in the storage box at the end of each shift.  I couldn’t ask for a better product as far as safety, quality and ease of use.  

Thanks for a great product,

Patrick from Georgia 

Very Impressed Tooner Ladder Customer

Tooner Pontoon Boat LaddersThe Tooner I Ladder is designed for safe and convenient access to pontoon boats.  This customer was especially grateful for the accessibility and safety of the stairway ladder design with a rope available to assist with ascending up and out of the water.

I hope that you had a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. Just so you know, we are very impressed with the ladder and it’s quality. I had a skydiving accident 5 years ago, and injured my spinal cord. I have limited mobility, and this ladder now allows me to go into the water and enjoy the lake with everyone else. Seems like a small thing, but it’s HUGE to me.
 
Again, Thank you
 
Craig from Florida

Fall Prevention Through Design: A Case Study from ASSE

Putting safety first applies not only in day to day operations, but also in the planning stages of new projects, investments and expansions.  In 2012 ANSI/ASSE created a consensus standard to promote this mentality.  Prevention Through Design as a concept in work safety began in the 1940’s and today has gained enough momentum and regulatory support to provide several models that prove its effectiveness.  A recent article at ASSE.org charts the effectiveness of engineering safety controls in the design process while considering the defeatability of safety hazard risk.

The most effective controls include elimination, substitution and engineering solutions, each ideally suited to be planned in the design phase of new projects.  Doing so will provide safety, productivity, and cost benefits.  In fact, the cost of implementing fall prevention through design can be thousands of times less expensive than the same solution integrated post completion.  Compromised solutions are often less effective, leaving hazard risks and associated costs.

Fall Prevention Design Case Study

The ASSE article provides a case study from a petrochemical organization building a new offshore platform.  The company had experienced the challenges of implementing fall prevention after the design stage and instead chose to hire a fall protection consultant early on to assist the engineering design team.  The combined expertise resulted in fall prevention safety measures that focused on productivity and risk abatement.  The process consisted of the following steps.

  1. Kickoff Meeting with Design team
  2. Virtual Fall Hazard Risk Assessment
  3. Design Team Workshops
  4. Specification Binder for Hazard Abatements
  5. Follow-Through During Construction Process

The benefits of foreseeing and engineering fall prevention through design are long term: safety advantages, productivity gains, and ultimately lower costs.  The case study resulted in hazard risk controls addressing elevated platforms, floor openings, ladders, and stair guardrails, helping to prevent the need for PPE and optimize processes, equipment placement and usage.  Indirect long term benefits included ‘less equipment purchases, less training and fewer elements to manage.’

Innovative Access Fall Prevention Design

Contacting a consultant while engineering an offshore platform was effective for the company from the ASSE case study.  The consultant costs were compared favorably to erecting scaffolding, the cost of which would have been required to address just one of the safety risks post-completion.  Innovative Access Solutions is available to contribute similarly during the design or redesign stages at your organization.  IAS has worked with Fortune 500 companies as well as SMB businesses to design solutions that provide long term cost and productivity benefits and accomplish your safety goals.  IAS designs ladders, platforms and fall prevention equipment and has provided solutions for a range of industries.  For a brief review of our access solutions, visit us at IAScustom.com.  Or call (800) 388-6884 to schedule an appointment with our team.

Work Safety Policy EMR Strategies to Lower Workers’ Comp Rates

At the beginning of each fiscal year, your insurance agency will provide you with your Experience Modification Rate, or EMR. This value serves as a multiplier to calculate your annual workers’ compensation insurance premium. EMR may lower or raise your premiums based on the history of safety and injury claims that your company exhibited over a three year period. It is also the most direct method of calculating a return on investment on work safety investments.

By improving work safety policies and following preventive practices that lower injury loss rate, business can save thousands of dollars annually on premium reductions.

Work Safety Policy EMR Strategy

The most direct way to lower your EMR is to institute a Work Safety Policy that is supported and promoted throughout the organization. Work safety policies build cultural safety values and institute programs, incentives and controls that improve processes and cross-departmental knowledge of safety.

Here are some ideas from a work safety policies at successful companies.

  • Develop a Safety Committee to assess and improve communication about safety policy and strategic EMR initiatives
  • Create a Return to Work Policy to encourage workers to return when able and reduce the length of claims
  • Initiate Job Classification reviews to communicate job responsibilities to employees and improve expertise
  • Implement strategies to generate a Safety Culture including Management Involvement, Incentive Plans, and Injury Claim packets with helpful information

Equipment Work Safety Policies for EMR

In support of work safety policy, effective management of equipment can further help reduce injuries and lower EMR. Ensure that equipment is operating properly and develop an Out of Service policy to inform team members how to handle malfunctioning equipment. Conduct work hazard analyses to identify equipment to reduce injury risk. Input from the employees that actually operate the equipment is highly valuable when developing policy. And remember that each work site or piece of equipment is unique and thus may require custom access solutions.

The above article was originally published in the January 2014 IAS Trucker Newsletter.  Sign up today to subscribe and receive our monthly Work Safety newsletter.

Workers Comp EMR Risk Management Sample Case

EMR, or Experience Modification Rate, is the most direct method of determining the effect that claim history has on the annual premium a business pays for workers’ compensation insurance. In technical terms, it is defined as follows.

The adjustment of annual premium based on previous loss experience. Usually three years of loss experience are used to determine the experience modifier for a workers’ compensation policy. The three years typically include not the immediate past year, but the three prior. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_modifier

An average Workers Comp EMR rate is 1.0. In essence, an average EMR means that the actual losses during a 3 year period is equal to the expected losses for that period. Since EMR functions as a multiplier, a company with an average EMR rate will pay precisely the calculated premium based on industry, number of employees, and other risk factors. From a work safety perspective, it would appear that these companies are effectively but not optimally preventing work injury hazards that drive EMR risk.

A Sample Workers Comp EMR Calculation

Workers’ comp EMR rates are lower or higher if a business incurs total losses that are lesser or greater than expected losses in the applicable 3 year time period.  For example, a company with more losses than expected may have an EMR of 1.1, and thus their premium is 1.1 times the base premium for their business. At the same time, if that business experiences fewer losses over the next 3 year period, their EMR may be 0.9 and they will pay less than the base premium.

Workers Comp EMR rate variations and resulting premiums

Minimum Workers’ Comp EMR and Controllable EMR

EMR values can and often do vary more than 0.1 above or below average.  Each business has a minimum EMR that they can strive to reach in order to pay their lowest possible workers comp insurance premium.  If Company XYZ has a Minimum EMR of 0.85 and a current EMR of 1.1, they have a Controllable EMR of 0.25 [1.1-0.85].  Here is where the bottom line effect should get the attention of business owners, as seen below.

Minimum EMR and Controllable EMR rate combine to provide total workers comp EMR rate

Effective Safety Reduces EMR Risk and Saves Money

Effective work safety and EMR risk management has many positive effects.  Improved morale, hiring and employee retention advantages, lost time reductions, and project timeline improvements to name just a few.  While these factors are difficult to monetize, the bottom line effect of improved workers comp EMR and resulting workers’ comp premium savings illustrates how effective safety can be at providing long term profit advantages and improved cash flow. It’s clear that from a financial perspective, managing work safety is a win-win for businesses of all sizes or strategies.

Learn how to Lower Your Workers Comp EMR