{"id":1403,"date":"2014-07-08T17:08:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T17:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2014-07-08T17:32:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T17:32:23","slug":"controlling-workers-compensation-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/safety-in-the-workplace\/controlling-workers-compensation-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Controlling Workers Compensation Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Controlling-Workers-Compensation-Cost\"<\/a>Controlling Workers Compensation Costs<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Many companies are encountering rising insurance costs.\u00a0 There are only so many ways to control and\/or decrease those costs.\u00a0 The best approach to control workers compensation costs is to have a proactive safety management system.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until your experience modification rate (EMR) is above 1.0 to decide it is time to focus on safety.\u00a0 \u00a0The EMR is a relatively straightforward calculation that compares a company’s annual losses in insurance claims against its policy premiums over a three-year period, excluding the most current year.<\/p>\n

Pre-screen Employees<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Cost containment starts before you hire an employee. If you do not have progressive hiring practices that are thorough, this is a red flag.\u00a0 Take the time to research the previous employment history.\u00a0 Develop pre-employment physical and testing to ensure that a prospective employee is fit to perform the job.\u00a0 Have a detailed job description that outlines the tasks that must be performed.<\/p>\n

Once you have the Best Person for the Job\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After choosing the correct hire, having an extensive safety orientation is critical.\u00a0 Take the time to make certain the employee knows how to do the job, he\/she understands job safety, job risks and the tasks involved.\u00a0 Include reporting procedures and what happens after an incident occurs in the safety orientation and ongoing safety training.\u00a0 Be sure that employees report all incidents.\u00a0 Make sure employees do not feel that reporting an incident is an issue and encourage them to report incidents to help improve every function.\u00a0 An incident is not necessarily an employee getting hurt, rather an incident is something out of the ordinary\u00a0that happens to the process, property and\/or employee.<\/p>\n

Employees need to be involved and \u201cown\u201d the safety processes and programs. They should participate in meetings, training, audits, and investigations. Supervisors should have thorough training on investigation protocols and root cause analysis.\u00a0 This will allow for a true understanding of the cause of the incident as well as follow up protocols and corrective actions.<\/p>\n

Some new hire safety training may be half day while others take several days to several weeks.\u00a0 Ongoing training is vital to stay focused and alert. \u00a0An analysis of training requirements for all positions is necessary to ensure employees are properly trained according to company and OSHA requirements.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/Publications\/osha2254.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

The company should have a well communicated safety policy.\u00a0 All employees should know and understand the company\u2019s core values. Management\u2019s visible commitment is important for employees. When management is visible, the employee better understands the importance. Developing goals and objectives on a periodic basis is essential and needs to\u00a0be visible.<\/p>\n

When Injury Occurs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A return to work program and policy is necessary to allow employees to work if injured and employees need to understand company rules.<\/p>\n

Return to work policies should include the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • pay for time off<\/li>\n
  • accommodations for time off for appointments related to the injury<\/li>\n
  • an outline of supervisor, management, and employee responsibilities<\/li>\n
  • modified duty accommodations<\/li>\n
  • consequences for not complying with the safety program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Having a proactive approach to claims includes but is not limited to the following:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • getting appropriate medical attention immediately<\/li>\n
    • ensuring root cause analysis is completed with the first 24 hours after an incident or injury<\/li>\n
    • keeping in constant contact with injured employees whether they are at work or at home<\/li>\n
    • getting a quick resolution on a claim<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      It\u2019s a good idea to build a strong relationship with local occupational health providers.\u00a0 This will allow them to understand the hazards in your facility.\u00a0 They may also be able to help with analysis of positions to assist with ergonomics and alert you to other hazards.<\/p>\n

      The factors above have separate development and training challenges, and by following these principles, you will be able to control costs and claims.\u00a0 This is not an all-inclusive list, each facility has unique issues.\u00a0 These are some of the best ideas for helping control workers compensation cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Controlling Workers Compensation Costs Many companies are encountering rising insurance costs.\u00a0 There are only so many ways to control and\/or decrease those costs.\u00a0 The best approach to control workers compensation costs is to have a proactive safety management system.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until your experience modification rate (EMR) is above 1.0 to decide it is time to focus on safety.\u00a0 \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[78,79,80],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety-in-the-workplace","tag-control-work-comp-cost","tag-reduce-work-compensation-costs","tag-reduce-workers-compensation-claims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allrisktraining.com\/allrisktraining\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}