Risk Factors

The Hidden Costs of Accidents: Why Safety Goes Beyond Premiums

Commercial insurance covers the financial costs of a loss or an accident to insulate a business from the ugly surprises of injury, theft, fire, litigation, or any other number of innumerable hazards facing today’s job creators.  Insurance is the vehicle that helps your organization stay financially viable to compete the day after a loss.  However, there are many other impacts of an accident that insurance cannot fix and for which safety programs, policies, and procedures can prevent.  

The best way to explain this is the Iceberg theory.  The tip of the iceberg is the financial impact that insurance will help recover; the hidden costs are everything that’s under the water that you can’t immediately see, but still exist.  These hidden parts of the iceberg are what sunk the Titanic.

 Hidden Costs of Accidents:

• Lost productivity
• Deductibles
• Personnel loss and replacement time (HR fees, training, and knowledge base)
• Loss of reputation (imagine your accident on the cover of a newspaper!)
• Loss of customers due to delivery delays
• Inability to attract quality workers if you have an unsafe reputation
• Time to replace damaged equipment
• Loss of market share as competitors take advantage of your down time
• Loss of opportunity (some companies won’t do business without a strong safety plan)

Some reports show that these hidden costs can actually add up to 70% of the perceived claim cost as reported to insurance.  Some managers chalk this up to “business as usual,” but a savvy company knows that these costs are lost dollars and that investing in safety makes financial sense.  70% of a $100,000 claim is $70,000 – just how much revenue would your organization have to take in to cover that loss? 

There are many a sad story of companies shuttering their doors or good people losing their jobs due to a careless accident that was covered, but that could have been prevented.  At the end of the day, safety isn’t about insurance – it’s the only way to run a smart business.    

Do you have ROPS in place to protect you??

The blog posting below was published on our sister blog, Grains of Knowledge.  I thought it would be prudent to share this topic on our own Risk Factors blog as many of our customers include agribusiness accounts and other similar businesses that may use tractors in their day to day operations.  Thanks to Stacey for the great post! Enjoy! ~ Lisa Mundt

 

Do you have ROPS in place to protect you?

One statistic the state of Pennsylvania is not proud of is the large number of tractor rollover fatalities.  Between the years 2000-2008, over 55 farm-related tractor rollover deaths occurred in Pennsylvania alone.  One in 10 farmers will overturn a tractor in their lifetime, and one in seven farmers who are involved in a tractor rollover are permanently disabled.  And experience alone is not enough to protect you; an alarming 80 percent of tractor rollovers happen to highly experienced tractor operators.

So how can you avoid these statistics and be safe and secure in your tractor?  How can you be assured that neither you nor your workers will succumb to a tractor accident?

ROPS is here to help!   ROPS stands for Rollover Protective Structure.  ROPS is a rebate program that will provide up to 70% of the cost to purchase and install the protective equipment that prevents tractor rollovers.   ROPS are designed to limit tractor roll by 90 degrees.  If a tractor doesroll, it will not roll on its side.  The combination of seat belts and ROPS is 99% effective in preventing rollover deaths.

The Westfield Insurance Foundation is a proud supporter of this program and recently donated $15,000 to the Pennsylvanis State University for Rollover Protective Structures Retrofit Program for Pennsylvania Farmers (PA ROPS). 

 

 

 

If you’d like more information on ROPS in PA, please visit this website:

http://ropsr4u.com/pa/overview/or call the ROPS hotline:  1-877-ROPS-R4U or 1-877-767-7748

 

 Stacey Bruce is a region leader for the small/speciality segment of Westfield's Agribusiness Division  based out of Westfield Center, Ohio, the corporate headquarters of Westfield Insurance.

The Leadership Series: Leader Characteristics

This is the first of a series of seven blogs on Leadership - leadership ideas, techniques, skills and methods as conservation-starters for you and your supervisory personnel.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.                                                            — Harold S. Geneen

Charisma - a characteristic that most successful leaders embody!  As a leader, you have to manage your team – give orders as well as take orders.  How well do you do this?  Do you know your leadership style?  Do you know how to relate to your employees?

I suspect the majority of us have worked with a leader, or employee with whom we did not see eye to eye.  Some may not have experienced this type of distraction, but most of us have at one time or another.  I use the word “distraction” because the lack of cohesion between the leader and the employee is a distraction when working as a team towards the end goal.

Often times egos get in the way of the true issue at hand and nothing gets reloved.  I dealt with this in a previous work environment, and it was palpable.  I now understand that I made the choice to blame the situation instead of holding myself accountable for improving the relationship, understanding the person and working together as a team.  I failed to exhibit the characteristics I want in a leader.

Recently, I performed a short survey with my peers to see what characteristics they want in a leader.  My purpose was to reach out to different departments to get a feel for what type of leader is effective.  Four characteristics led the pack, and I have added some comments provided in the survey:

• Integrity – Tell me like it is – be honest!  Don’t cover it up or sugar coat it.
• Approachability – Willingness to listen to different ways to accomplish the same goal.
• Fairness – Trust that my leader treats me fairly and equally, and my co-workers as well.
• Clear Communication – I want to meet face-to-face to assure a comfort level in both directions of communication.  I want clear expectations.  {Taking notes is a great way to refresh on past conversations to ensure all are on the same page.}

I must say these were certainly in my top 10.  I believe we want our leaders to set an example – treat us the way we want to be treated. 

Have you had a similar experience?  Are you getting what you need from your direct leader?  What have you done to bridge the gap?  What example are you setting as a leader? 

 

Leader Tip

Approachability can be difficult for leaders as they may have been very successful reaching their specific goals, and may have no experience as a leader over direct reports.  As a person promoted to a leadership, the leader expects direct reports to be successful as well and achieve specific goals in the same style/approach he/she did.  When work styles differ, this approach can lead to resentment towards the leader and a direct report that does not feel empowered. 

How do you overcome this challenge as a leader?  Focus on the end goal with your direct report versus the approach or style they use to achieve it.  Allow the direct report to use their approach and their style that they are comfortable with to achieve the end goal.  They will feel empowered, be more supportive and ultimately accomplish the end goal you wanted to achieve.  Your objective as leader, of course, is to ensure that they follow company policy with their approach and style, but beyond that, leave it up to the direct report to achieve the end goal.   

Jay DePasquale

Middle Market Leader

 

Additional Resources

Improving Your Leadership Skills

Seven Ways the Best Leaders Set an Example by Going First

Today’s To-Do List:  Fire Someone

Photo courtesy of Leadershipvibe.net

Suzanne Coleman is a senior risk control representative out of the Nashville office of Westfield Insurance.  She has worked in the insurance industry for 20 years.

OSHA Launches New Online Safety Videos for the Construction Industry

In order to help reduce the number of worker injuries and to increase safety awareness, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has recently launched a new series of "V-tools" or online safety training videos addressing some of the most common dangerous construction risks facing workers.

According to the OSHA website, "Every year in the U.S. more than 800 construction workers die and nearly 137,000 are seriously injured while on the job. Construction workers engage in many activities that may expose them to serious hazards, such as falling from rooftops, unguarded machinery, being struck by heavy construction equipment, electrocutions, silica dust, and asbestos."

The videos show how quickly workers can be injured or killed on the job and are intended to assist those in the industry to identify, reduce, and eliminate construction-related hazards. Most of the videos are 2 to 4 minutes long, presented in clear, easily accessible vocabulary, and show common construction worksite activities. The videos may be used for employer and worker training (Perhaps your next Tool Box talk?) Each video presents:

• A worksite incident based on true stories that resulted in worker injury or death.
• Corrective actions for preventing these types of accidents.
• Topics include: Falls, Sprains & Straings, Struck by Accidents, Carbon Monoxidie in Construction and Excavations in Construction.

I have viewed all of the videos and found them to be extremely insightful as well as concise and to the point.  I think they would be a great resource for many contractors and would be useful for new tool box topic training sessions, especially since each video is between 2 - 4 minutes in length.  OSHA gives you the option to stream the videos, download the videos or watch them via YouTube.  You also have the ability to download the transcript for your training leader. 

Click HERE to access the new OSHA V-Tools in English.

Click HERE to access the new OSHA V-Tools in Spanish.

Lisa Mundt is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance based out of our Atlanta, Ga service office. Lisa has over 9 years of risk management experience servicing a wide variety of customers, such as small business, traditional mid market, technology as well as the construction industry. 

Survey Shows Risk Managers Displaying More Proactive Traits

Historically in the the risk management field there have been two types of risk managers:  technicians and consultants.  Technicians (AKA - Hector the Inspector) are known to be very technical and detail oriented while Consultants tend to have slightly less technical skills but can communicate more effectively with customers.  It has always been a challenge to find a hybrid among these two opposites. 

A recent study has shown that there has been an increase in the number of consultants/or those with a proactive personality in the risk management field. 

The article titled, Personality Survey Shows Risk Managers Displaying More Proactive Traits, documents,

"While risk managers with traditional skills are still in the majority, a large group of risk managers—40 percent—exhibit non-traditional characteristics, and are “drivers” and “evangelists,” with more social skills and charm, according to a study based on profiling methodology.

Because of uncertain times, businesses are increasingly looking to the risk-management function to help identify critical risks and propose mitigation strategies to enable sustainable growth, according to the report, “What Makes a Great Risk Manager?” by Active Risk in Herndon, Va.

Organizations are also maturing in their approach to risk management, and risk is gaining a voice at a senior level. To support these increasing demands, the role of risk professionals is rapidly evolving, the study finds.

While risk managers with traditional skills are still in the majority, a large group of risk managers—40 percent—exhibit non-traditional characteristics, and are “drivers” and “evangelists,” with more social skills and charm, according to a study based on profiling methodology."

 Click here to read the full article.

Have you also noticed this trend in your business? How much of an effect do you think the current state of the economy has on this trend?  We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this interesting topic. 

Lisa Mundt is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance based out of our Atlanta, Ga service office. Lisa has over 9 years of risk management experience servicing a wide variety of customers, such as small business, traditional mid market, technology as well as the construction industry. 

 

October 3-7 is National Drive Safely to Work Week!

Whether we’re the driver, a passenger, a pedestrian or cyclist, there are things we can do in each role to help prevent distracted driving-related incidents.  If you have not had this conversation with those driving company vehicles, or driving personal vehicles on company business, NOW is the time!

Did you know...

...there are three main types of distraction:

• Visual:  taking your eyes off the road
• Manual: taking your hands off the wheel
• Cognitive:  taking your mind away from the task at hand

...a recent national survey found 95 percent of parent think they are safe drivers, but 82 percent of teens and tweens (9-12 years) say they've seen their parent do risky things in the driver's seat.

There are tips on this flier you can download and share: DriveSafelyWorkWeek2011.  Another resource is United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood's video on the Faces of Distracted Driving.  There is a series of videos of people who have been directly or indirectly affected by distracted driving.  Also, here is a public service announcement on the Faces of Distracted Driving that is a good place to start before watching the series of videos.  This information can be shared not only with your employees, but also your family members.

For more information, go to  \\svpwcm01\d-drive\bea\wlserver6.1\config\ue62domain\applications\UE62WebApp\data\bin\hp.20111003.DriveSafelyWorkWeekTues.pdf 

 

Suzanne Coleman is a Senior Risk Control Representative with Westfield Insurance, operating out of the Nashville, Tennessee service office.  She has worked in the Safety and Health field for almost 20 years.

Wellness Impacts Worker Safety

Machines and technology have helped eliminate some stresses from our bodies in the workplace, but even a desk jockey may proclaim that their job is “back breaking” labor.  In fact, the more sedentary the jobs become, the more strains and back pain employees seem to suffer. 

The truth is, the human body was not designed to be static.  Movement is a must.  The health insurance industry is leading the way in wellness programs.  What you might not know is that wellness also impacts worker safety.  Studies have found an average of 28% reduction in sick leave, 30% reduction in claims costs, and 23% reduction in healthcare premiums throughout several industries.  That translates into direct savings on your bottom line.  

It’s important for companies to take advantage of these programs, not only to save in health care, but because it contributes to worker safety as well.  A well oiled machine is less likely to break down and easier to fix; that’s just like the human body.  A physically fit worker with good health habits is less likely to require a lengthy hospital stay or surgery if hurt on the job.  This directly impacts claims costs and your work comp mod. 

Perhaps your company doesn’t have a wellness program yet, but you know it’s a good idea.  Here are some ideas to incorporate into your workplace to receive the wellness benefits to safety:

• Start a “Biggest Loser” campaign in the office.  Keep competition friendly, fun, and focused on realistic goals. 
• Remind employees to have an annual physical.
• Offer employees a pedometer to keep track of how many steps they take per day.  To achieve maximum health benefits work towards 10,000 steps per day (about 5 miles). 
• Replace sugary, low quality foods with healthy options in your vending machines and lunch rooms. 
• Institute a Stretch and Flex Program (Westfield customers: we can help you customize one for your industry). 
• Have an ergonomics review of your workstations.
• Offer to help sponsor employees' efforts in charity walks and marathon runs. 
• Encourage employees to share what works for them on the company’s intranet. 
• Highlight worker success stories as employees reach their health goals. 
• Work with a local gym to establish a company discount program if your employees become members. 

There are many other ideas out there to try.  Have fun developing your company’s wellness program and sell it to management by highlighting the impact to the bottom line. 

Healthy workers generally reduce health care premium costs, are less likely to be injured, are more productive, and take fewer sick days. 

How is your company encouraging wellness in the workplace?

Kirsten is a Risk Control Representative out of our Peoria, IL Service Office. She holds a B.A. in International Relations and Business from Bradley University in Peoria. Upon graduating, Kirsten entered an intensive insurance training program with a global carrier for 14 months and obtained experience in all insurance disciplines including claims, underwriting, and loss control.  Kirsten has 5+ years experience providing loss control consultative services for a variety of industry exposures; specialties include hospitality, food and beverage manufacturing, religious institutions, and country clubs/golf courses.

Keep Experienced Employees Engaged in Safety

Workplace accidents don’t discriminate for ignorance or experience; an accident can happen to the best of us if we are caught in a distraction.  This includes our most experienced employees. 

Risk management professionals in many industries are adept at new-hire orientation and developing awareness of risks in a new workplace.  However, most need improvement with keeping safety interesting and fresh for more experienced employees. 

Interestingly enough, outside of new hires, many accidents tend to occur with employees having many years of experience.  Because of complacency and a sense of security, employees get comfortable in their role and suffer injury due to carelessness and taking safety for granted. 

How can you keep an experienced employee engaged in the safety process in relationship to their experience?  The key is employee involvement.  Here are some ideas to foster continuous improvement in experienced workers:

• Rotate membership on safety committees.
• Have experienced employees conduct safety training for new hires under appropriate supervision.
• Tie safety performance into annual employee evaluations.
• Allow experienced employees to develop and present “toolbox” talk topics.
• Rotate and reward participation in PPE checks, machine guarding reviews, and self-inspections.
• Host a lunch for injury-free employees and include a safety topic talk.

Including experienced workers allows for a sense of accomplishment and personal achievement outside of an employee’s everyday task.  This fosters company loyalty, job satisfaction, and increased participation in the safety process.  What are some ways you incorporate experience into your safety program? 

Kirsten Hedden is a Risk Control Representative out of our Peoria, IL Service Office. She holds a B.A. in International Relations and Business from Bradley University in Peoria. Upon graduating, Kirsten entered an intensive insurance training program with a global carrier for 14 months and obtained experience in all insurance disciplines including claims, underwriting, and loss control.  Kirsten has 5+ years experience providing loss control consultative services for a variety of industry exposures; specialties include hospitality, food and beverage manufacturing, religious institutions, and country clubs/golf courses.

Westfield Insurance Launches Innovative Return to Work Program

Westfield Insurance has partnered with ReEmployAbility, Inc. on an innovative program that benefits community service organizations, while helping Westfield customers assist their injured employees in recovering from their work injuries and returning to work.

WesWorks, a program customized and managed by ReEmployAbility for Westfield, offers injured workers who are unable to return to their normal job duties the option to earn pay while volunteering time and service to American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, United Way, YMCA, community food banks and many more nonprofit agencies.

"WesWorks is a winning approach to managing work-related injuries," Jim Bowers, Westfield Workers’ Compensation Claims Leader, said. "Injured workers who may not be ready to perform their regular work duties can make valuable contributions to service organizations in their communities."

According to Bowers, Westfield was impressed by ReEmployAbility’s Transition2Work solution and how it aligns with the insurance company’s commitment to citizenship. Westfield’s community investments focus on safety and education, health and human services and home ownership.

"We are excited about our partnership with Westfield. We believe that Westfield’s commitment to extending this program to their commercial policyholders and their collaborative efforts to implement the program nationwide will result in great success," Debra Livingston and Frances Ford, founders of ReEmployAbility, said.

Studies have shown that getting an employee back to work as quickly as possible following a workplace injury can greatly reduce the overall cost of the injury and also greatly improve employee morale.  While many business owners that I have met with recently understand the importance of getting an employee back to work these same business owners often say that they don't have a job to give the injured worker - - especially in this economy.  This new program allows the employee to return to work by volunteering at a local nonprofit organization.  Not only does this help the injured employee but it also promotes goodwill within the community. 

What are your thoughts on this new program?  We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. 

Lisa Mundt is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance, a regional insurance company based in Northeast Ohio and operating in 18 states. Lisa is based out of our Atlanta, Georgia office.

 

Learning From Accidents

We have all heard that in order to grow we must learn from our mistakes and failures.  Accidents on the other hand can be very costly misfortunes, as noted in our last blog posting “What’s Your Number?  The Real Cost of Accidents”, but the lessons learned can be extremely valuable to help prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.  “But we don’t have any accidents”, you may say… However, the lack of accident frequency doesn’t mean that a severe accident can’t happen at any time which could have devastating effects on the business, the employee and their family.

 Even if your company has not had a claim or accident, you can bet someone else already has; and they may be involved in similar activities as your employees or use the same equipment as your company.  Investigative findings from their accidents can be valuable to help your organization learn to identify hazards and develop corrective actions BEFORE an accident happens. 

One resource that I often refer to is the NIOSH F.A.C.E. reports. 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program is a research program designed to identify and study fatal occupational injuries. The goal of the FACE program is to prevent occupational fatalities across the nation by identifying and investigating work situations at high risk for injury and then formulating and disseminating prevention strategies to those who can intervene in the workplace.

Why are these reports important?

Each day, on average, 16 workers die as a result of a traumatic injury on the job. Investigations conducted through the FACE program allow the identification of factors that contribute to fatal occupational injuries. This information is used to develop comprehensive recommendations for preventing similar deaths.

 These “comprehensive recommendations” and associated discussions can be used in your organization to prevent similar hazards from leading to an employee injury, property damage claim or fatality. 

 

To access these reports for free, you can go to: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/

 

You can also sign up for free e-mail updates which allow NIOSH to send you links to the FACE Reports as they are released. 

 

Matt McKelvy is a Senior Risk Control Representative for Westfield Insurance and is based out of our Toledo, OH office.  Matt has had prior experience in the insurance claims field as a Multi-lines Claims representative before transitioning into our Risk Services Department in 2003.