Five Steps to Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs
Controlling workers’ compensation costs can be achieved with five steps designed to create a well-rounded safety program that produces a safer job site, achieves OSHA compliance, and reduces accidents.
- Develop safety programs required by the OSHA standards.
- Integrate those programs into the daily operations.
- Investigate all injuries and illnesses.
- Provide training to develop safety competence in all employees.
- Audit your programs and your worksite regularly to stimulate continuous improvement.
-
Establish Compliance Standards
In addition to being a requirement for those in the construction industry, OSHA standards provide an excellent pathway to incident reductions. Many accidents stem from poorly developed, poorly trained, or poorly implemented OSHA programs.
OSHA construction standards require written programs to be developed and communicated to workers. Experience shows that companies with thoroughly developed OSHA-compliant programs have fewer accidents, more productive employees, and are better at controlling workers’ compensation costs.
-
Integrate Programs into Daily Operations
Policies alone won’t get results; the program must move from paper to practice to impact your bottom line. Achieving this requires a strategic plan communicated to workers, good execution, and a culture that inspires and rewards people for doing their best.
As with any business initiative, the success of your safety program depends on putting supervisors in the best position to succeed. If your frontline supervisors understand the program and are motivated to make it work, the program succeeds; if not, it is an endless drain on resources and energies. Providing supervisors with knowledge and skills through training is critical to the success of any program.
A solid OSHA program, integrated into the daily operation and led by competent supervisors, is just the beginning. Successful safety programs focus on being proactive instead of reactive.
-
Accident Investigations
Accident investigations provide an excellent source of information on actual or potential issues on the job site. Since workers’ compensation covers a worker’s wages for injuries or illnesses arising from or out of employment, increasing claims drive up workers’ compensation costs. To reduce costs, you must reduce accidents. And the ability to reduce accidents is significantly enhanced when they are thoroughly investigated instead of reported.
Accident reports are historical records that only cite facts, while accident investigations go deeper to find the root cause and improve. To stop rising workers’ compensation costs, you must have an effective accident investigation process that flushes out the root cause of the problem. Unless the root cause is discovered, recommendations for improvement will be complex, if not impossible, to implement. Again, training proves beneficial because a site supervisor skilled in incident analysis is a better problem solver for all issues, not just safety.
All accidents should be investigated to find out what went wrong and why. Some may suggest investigating every accident is a bit over the top and only those that incur high costs are worthy of scrutiny. But suppose your emphasis is only on those incidents that must be recorded on the OSHA 300 log. In that case, you should be aware of first aid-only incidents’ most significant accident category. Many firms focus solely on recordable or lost time accidents because of the significant costs involved, but they don’t realize that the small fees and high numbers of first aid-only incidents add up.
Statistics show that for every 100 accidents, only ten will fall under OSHA regulations as recordable. If you investigate only the accidents you must, the vast majority will go unnoticed. Reducing serious accidents means reducing your overall rate of all accidents–including first aid-only incidents. That only happens when every incident is thoroughly investigated to find the root cause, and corrective actions are identified and integrated into daily job tasks.
-
Training
The fourth step focuses on training, which plays a significant role in the safety and reducing workers’ compensation costs. Training aims to develop competent people with the knowledge, skill, and understanding to perform assigned job responsibilities. Competence, more than anything else, will drive down costs. Site supervisors must have the knowledge and ability to integrate programs into each job on the job site so that employees know what is expected of them. Contact your representative at InsureGood to obtain comprehensive safety materials and programs.
-
Continuous Improvement
The final step is auditing your safety program for continuous improvement. Once the programs are developed and implemented, they must be reviewed regularly to ensure they are still relevant and effective. This might require a significant change in how you manage your safety program, but if your workers’ compensation rates are high, it may be time to make this leap.
Safety Makes Good Sense
All employers should strive to keep their employees as safe as possible, and it also makes the most sense for the health of your business:
- Studies indicate that properly designed, implemented, and integrated safety programs lead to a return on investment and that firms will see direct bottom-line benefits.
- A competency-based safety program is compliant with OSHA construction requirements and therefore reduces the threat of OSHA fines.
- A competency-based safety program lowers accidents and fewer accidents lower workers’ compensation costs. When incidents occur, a competency-based safety program evaluates the issue, finds the root cause to prevent reoccurrence, and provides a job site free from recognized hazards.
- A safer job site creates better morale and improves employee retention. Auditing keeps your programs fresh and effective and drives continuous improvement.
- A competency-based program produces fully engaged people in every aspect of their job.
Five Steps to Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs
Controlling workers’ compensation costs can be achieved with five steps designed to create a well-rounded safety program that produces a safer job site, achieves OSHA compliance, and reduces accidents.
- Develop safety programs required by the OSHA standards.
- Integrate those programs into the daily operations.
- Investigate all injuries and illnesses.
- Provide training to develop safety competence in all employees.
- Audit your programs and your worksite regularly to stimulate continuous improvement.
-
Establish Compliance Standards
In addition to being a requirement for those in the construction industry, OSHA standards provide an excellent pathway to incident reductions. Many accidents stem from poorly developed, poorly trained, or poorly implemented OSHA programs.
OSHA construction standards require written programs to be developed and communicated to workers. Experience shows that companies with thoroughly developed OSHA-compliant programs have fewer accidents, more productive employees, and are better at controlling workers’ compensation costs.
-
Integrate Programs into Daily Operations
Policies alone won’t get results; the program must move from paper to practice to impact your bottom line. Achieving this requires a strategic plan communicated to workers, good execution, and a culture that inspires and rewards people for doing their best.
As with any business initiative, the success of your safety program depends on putting supervisors in the best position to succeed. If your frontline supervisors understand the program and are motivated to make it work, the program succeeds; if not, it is an endless drain on resources and energies. Providing supervisors with knowledge and skills through training is critical to the success of any program.
A solid OSHA program, integrated into the daily operation and led by competent supervisors, is just the beginning. Successful safety programs focus on being proactive instead of reactive.
-
Accident Investigations
Accident investigations provide an excellent source of information on actual or potential issues on the job site. Since workers’ compensation covers a worker’s wages for injuries or illnesses arising from or out of employment, increasing claims drive up workers’ compensation costs. To reduce costs, you must reduce accidents. And the ability to reduce accidents is significantly enhanced when they are thoroughly investigated instead of reported.
Accident reports are historical records that only cite facts, while accident investigations go deeper to find the root cause and improve. To stop rising workers’ compensation costs, you must have an effective accident investigation process that flushes out the root cause of the problem. Unless the root cause is discovered, recommendations for improvement will be complex, if not impossible, to implement. Again, training proves beneficial because a site supervisor skilled in incident analysis is a better problem solver for all issues, not just safety.
All accidents should be investigated to find out what went wrong and why. Some may suggest investigating every accident is a bit over the top and only those that incur high costs are worthy of scrutiny. But suppose your emphasis is only on those incidents that must be recorded on the OSHA 300 log. In that case, you should be aware of first aid-only incidents’ most significant accident category. Many firms focus solely on recordable or lost time accidents because of the significant costs involved, but they don’t realize that the small fees and high numbers of first aid-only incidents add up.
Statistics show that for every 100 accidents, only ten will fall under OSHA regulations as recordable. If you investigate only the accidents you must, the vast majority will go unnoticed. Reducing serious accidents means reducing your overall rate of all accidents–including first aid-only incidents. That only happens when every incident is thoroughly investigated to find the root cause, and corrective actions are identified and integrated into daily job tasks.
-
Training
The fourth step focuses on training, which plays a significant role in the safety and reducing workers’ compensation costs. Training aims to develop competent people with the knowledge, skill, and understanding to perform assigned job responsibilities. Competence, more than anything else, will drive down costs. Site supervisors must have the knowledge and ability to integrate programs into each job on the job site so that employees know what is expected of them. Contact your representative at InsureGood to obtain comprehensive safety materials and programs.
-
Continuous Improvement
The final step is auditing your safety program for continuous improvement. Once the programs are developed and implemented, they must be reviewed regularly to ensure they are still relevant and effective. This might require a significant change in how you manage your safety program, but if your workers’ compensation rates are high, it may be time to make this leap.
Safety Makes Good Sense
All employers should strive to keep their employees as safe as possible, and it also makes the most sense for the health of your business:
- Studies indicate that properly designed, implemented, and integrated safety programs lead to a return on investment and that firms will see direct bottom-line benefits.
- A competency-based safety program is compliant with OSHA construction requirements and therefore reduces the threat of OSHA fines.
- A competency-based safety program lowers accidents and fewer accidents lower workers’ compensation costs. When incidents occur, a competency-based safety program evaluates the issue, finds the root cause to prevent reoccurrence, and provides a job site free from recognized hazards.
- A safer job site creates better morale and improves employee retention. Auditing keeps your programs fresh and effective and drives continuous improvement.
- A competency-based program produces fully engaged people in every aspect of their job.
The Last Word
At InsureGood, we are committed to helping you establish a strong safety program that helps control workers’ compensation costs. Contact us today to learn more about our OSHA compliance and safety program resources.
