Category Archives: Loss Control

HR Challenges, Loss Control, Risk Management

Considerations When Starting A Safety Committee

One of the main parts of a solid safety program is to promote better communication between employees and management. We believe safety committees are one of the most cost effective, high yielding solutions for safety challenged organizations. Hopefully we can make a case for your organization to start one even if educations hasn’t yet become expensive. Here are some considerations when starting a safety committee.

A well-developed safety committee serves as a two-way channel of communication promoting safety awareness keeping safety top of mind and to better improve operations protocols which will lead to better efficiencies and outcomes throughout the workplace which complete the virtuous circle of lowering costs and engaging your employees.

This article will focus on considerations when starting a safety committee, how to sell the idea to management and who to invite. This will be one of 3 articles on starting a safety committee.

Selling Management On Starting A Safety Committee :  

Safety Meeting Considerations

Contingent on your role in the organization whether it be safety manager, supervisor, C.F.O. , HR Director your goals are the same. Safety pays huge dividends in terms of costs, productivity, and quality. We always found it extremely helpful when consulting with upper management to speak in the language they understand best; COST ! Our first objective is to study historical data to dollarize the problem for management as that is what they understand best. Chances are if you are reading this and thinking of building a safety committee something is driving that. That something is usually employee injury claims.

There is a great tool OSHA has that helps businesses understand the high cost of employee injuries. It’s called SAFETY PAYS. Here are some other considerations:

  • Order all loss runs for all lines of insurance over the last 5 years and execute a loss pic. This is a profitability ratio correlating the insurance premiums paid in versus claims incurred. Anything over 50% you’re getting surcharged on that particular line of insurance.
  • What’s your EMR (Experience Modification Rating on your workers compensation policy. If it’ 1.00 or higher your at a competitive disadvantage to your toughest peers and competitors. Know what the lowest possible modification factor is for your business and set that as a goal. The difference between the lowest EMR and your EMR is an opportunity cost.
  • How much does your company spend in fines, legal fees and deductibles over the last 3 to 5 years? That’s money and resources that could be utilized elsewhere.

I think you get where we are going. Once you can demonstrate to management what your cost over runs are you will have their attention. Their next question SHOULD be, what do you suggest? If it’s not your probably at the wrong company as they are chasing the wrong rabbit which is usually top line growth at the expense of healthy profit. If you need help dollarizing your challenge  contact a Risk Advisor. We make the business case for safety to corporate boards and C suite everyday. We are happy to help with this challenge at no cost to you. You can also download our free E – Book THE SECRETS TO LOWERING YOUR WORKERS COMPENSATION COSTS.

 

SAFETY COMMITTEE APPROVED! NOW WHAT? :

Careful what you wish for right? No worries trying something is better than keep getting a punch in the face of your P&L.

START HERE :

  • Build a list of potential employees that have the following characteristics.

    • High achievers / Over Achievers.
    • Leaders in their peer group, or at least well respected.
    • Line employees and not supervisors (more on this later).
    • Could or should be recognized.
    • Rotate membership so that members exposed to Safety & Health Committee issues are “circulated” back into the workforce and others are brought in. Always have it merit-based as you want folks to aspire to be on the committee.

  • Make a splashy announcement.

Make it so an invitation to this committee is a privilege and recognition for good work, attendance, attitude whatever you find important. This accomplishes two things. It rewards and recognizes the folks that are your high valued employees. Further, it should motivate the folks that were not selected to make the list next time. We also suggest that gift cards, time off, or some other low-cost rewards accompany membership to the committee. It doesn’t have to be big, just something like an exchange of value for their input.

  • Be smart about when you set the meetings.

Be cognizant of their schedules and your workflow needs. Meetings should be fairly short and concise. They should also not be too often. You could start once a month to get some traction then go to quarterly once you feel like you’re in a groove. We find the optimal time is once every month or two months.

  • Build structure around the meetings.

Open with a review of last meetings pending, open up to new incidents or items that have come to the companies attention. Have some great questions for the participants. Have reports and K.R.I’s to review so we can track progress. What’s critical here is that your role is to be facilitator NOT to call these folks in the room to hear you tell them what you think. Draw them out. There are no bad ideas…thank everyone for sharing. Recognize their ideas and opinions as everyone wants acknoledgement. Be positive, emphasize pockets of success. Treat failings and opportunities for improvements.

  • There is great free software to help you organize and structure your meetings and committees.

We suggest a tool like ASANA. It’s fabulously collaborative and FREE. It’s so important to be succinct and efficient in your meetings and to set up action plans and delegate task items to members for the next meeting. One of the reasons a lot of committees fail is there is no follow up, action plan or loop closure. This becomes obvious to everyone that no progress is being made. Having a tool like Asana that helps everyone stay on point and moving forward is critical.

Some Additional Safety Committee Considerations : 

  1. Conduct Safety/Housekeeping inspection(s) of one or more departments as part of each meeting.
  2. Review and update safety rules and safe operating procedures.
  3. Review accidents and “near miss” incidents reported since the last meeting. Suggest means for preventing future occurrences using the % Why’s.
  4. Convey, review and comment on safety suggestions submitted by Employees (pick top 3 to install)
  5. Create, Plan and carry out various safety promotion activities (such as contests, award programs, etc.) consistent with your goals. 
  6. Create & promote safety awareness among all employees through safe attitudes and day-to-day interactions.
  7. Review the safety impacts of equipment/facility changes and multi-shift operations.
  8. Track previous initiatives to find pockets of success to expand on. Lose the initiatives that aren’t achieving your goals to prevent mission creep.
  9. Take great notes, assign tasks and follow up on tasks completed for the next meeting. Log the minutes somewhere and make sure to share with senior management and other committee members. This is important work and is an organization imperative. Not sharing the minutes puts the committee and it’s work out in left field. Instead, management should emphasize and back it. Nothing could be worse than management either not being aware of the committee’s suggestions or worse. Glossing over their suggestions and implementing nothing. That is despondent leading ultimately to frustration and committee failure. If senior management is not fully committed to the backing and supporting the safety committee everyone is wasting their time.

Our next article in the series focuses on building the right K.R.I’s and other tools to help guide your important work. If you have suggestions for us on this article you may email directly at info@metropolitanrisk.com. Put in the subject line “Safety Committee Article 1”. We hope you found this article helpful.

 

 

Claims Management, HR Challenges, Loss Control, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content

Looking for the Root Cause Of Your Problem ? Try Why Analysis

Remember when your kids annoyed you by responding to everything you said with “Why?” Well, there was a genius to that tactic only children can impart.  The 5-Why Analysis is a method used to determine and understand the root cause of a problem by repeating the question “why?” five times. Each answer forms the basis of the next question.

There are no hard and fast rules about what questions to explore, or how long to continue the search for additional root causes (e.g. asking “why?” seven or eight times instead). Therefore, the outcome of the analysis will always depend upon the knowledge and persistence of the people involved.

Here is a relatively simple example of Why Analysis:

Problem: The car will not start!

  1. Why? – The battery is dead. (First why)
  2. Why? – The alternator is not functioning. (Second why)
  3. Why? – The alternator belt has broken. (Third why)
  4. Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced. (Fourth why)
  5. Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (Fifth why, a root cause)

Just as annoying children so often do, it would be easy to continue asking “why?” in order to delve even deeper into the problem. However, five repetitions will generally suffice in leading to a root cause.

About Why Analysis

It is important to note that the determined root cause should almost always point toward a process that is not working well or does not exist, rather than something simple and generally uncontrollable such as “There wasn’t enough time.” Answers that are out of our control are not helpful; further in most cases what you will discover in your 5 Why Root Cause Analysis is a failure of process, which is the ultimate goal. You can’t manage and improve what you don’t know.

The developer of the 5-Why Analysis method  Sakichi Toyoda was head of the Toyota Motor Corp who used this method to great effect. Toyoda has some helpful tips and strategies to think about when performing “ Why Analysis”:

  • Use paper or whiteboard instead of computers
    • Writing the issue helps you formalize the problem and describe it completely. It also helps a team focus on the same problem
  • Look for the cause step by step. Don’t jump to conclusions.
  • Base our statements on facts and knowledge; not conjecture.
  • A root cause should never be something as simple as “human error” or “workers’ inattention”

The Why Analysis can be used in day to day business life, and is especially helpful when dealing with persistent problems that never seem to go away. Stubborn and recurrent problems are often so because they contain deeper issues, and “quick fixes” only solve the surface issues.

Need help dissecting and solving a recurring problem safety or employee injury problem? Don’t hesitate to call us at (914) 357-8444. We have  been invited into thousands of businesses to break down their challenges and help solve for “x” , usually high insurance costs driven by claims. We will help you get to the why that much quicker. Time is money, gives us a call.  

 

Loss Control, Risk Management

Safety Management by Luck

When it comes to safety, organizations traditionally adjust their seriousness of response (and their tracking) based on the severity of the incident. The following diagram shows such an organization. The arrows are drawn based on the following question: “At what level of severity does each part of the management team usually get involved?”

Regardless as to where the lines are drawn on the continuum, basing the seriousness of our response on the actual severity of the injury is management by luck.

Management by Luck

One of the most common safety fallacies that supervisors and managers often fall for is this belief that the seriousness of the response must be related to the severity of the injury. For example, an employee uses the top step of a four-foot ladder to reach a ten- foot fascia and completes the task. The next employee does the same thing and falls breaking a leg. By basing the level of our response on the actual severity of the injury, the latter event requires a serious response while the former requires barely a mention. The severity of the injury is the only difference between the two incidents and it is solely a matter of luck. Unfortunately, we have propagated this fallacy over the years by connecting resulting severity with seriousness of response, categorizing incidents by actual severity, and measuring (tracking) our success or failure by the same. The simple fact that we regularly use the terms ‘near miss’, ‘recordable injury’, and ‘loss time injury’ drives us to this ridiculous approach. By measuring just claims instead of total incidents, we also perpetuate this error. Usually, this means the bigger the injury, the more complicated and intensive the analysis and corrective actions. This flawed philosophy, perpetuated by many elements of traditional safety programs, often results in the lack of accountability and responsibility; the loss of credibility; the creation of confusion; the expression of inconsistent messages; the taking of costly, unnecessary and ineffective corrective actions for the sake of action itself; and the loss of many opportunities for continuous improvement.

Lack of Accountability and Responsibility

If the plant manager does not get involved with an incident until the actual severity reaches the OSHA recordable threshold, he is not accountable nor responsible for anything that happens where the actual severity is lower. The same goes for the supervisors. If they do not respond until the employee gets hurt, they too can say that they are neither accountable nor responsible.

Loss of Credibility

The real hypocrisy lies in the fact that we expect our employees to bring safety issues to our attention as soon as they are aware of them. However, there lessons of experience tell them that management will only respond as the actual severity increases. A common employee response of that indicates this loss of credibility: “They (the management team) won’t do anything until someone gets hurt.”

If the thought process equates actual severity with seriousness of response, our actions appear to be knee-jerk and extremely inconsistent. The inconsistency arises, as described above, because the severity of the resulting injuries is most often a matter of luck. When two employees who take the same action but experience different physical results are treated differently by management, the inconsistency is obvious to all. These inconsistent responses by management undermine the credibility of the safety program and the supervisory staff; and our employees notice. They recognize when their supervisor says one thing and does another. This becomes even more apparent when disciplinary actions are taken against an employee who became injured for doing the same things that his supervisor has done many times.

Contributing to this loss of credibility is the lack of clear expectations. When employees do not know what to expect in way of a response, they are either disappointed or disillusioned. In the beginning, employees are told that safety is important and they can always stop what they are doing if they think it is unsafe. With a lack of clear expectations, over time, their definition of ‘safe’ deteriorates to ‘just don’t get hurt’.

Costly Ineffective Corrective Actions for the Sake of Action

Although it is true that medical costs are significantly higher for a broken bone as they are for a small cut, the big dollars associated with safety are buried in the engineering and operational changes made in the name of a safer work environment. When our responses are based on the actual severity instead of the potential severity and frequency, we become trapped into taking corrective action for the sake of action. Often times, these actions don’t address the actually causes and result in costly, ineffective changes. Such changes are both financially and culturally damaging.

Missed Opportunities

Statistics, and anecdotal evidence, tell us that we often have a few if not many opportunities to fix a problem before someone gets seriously injured. However, a team that manages by luck misses these opportunities because they are too busy reviewing statistics, enforcing rules, and developing ineffective corrective actions.

Leadership through Logic

Management by logic leaves nothing to chance. Logic dictates that our response must be based on the potential severity and frequency instead of the actual severity. To reinforce this point and recommit your supervisory team to the concept of managing your risk, ask your leaders where the lines should be drawn on the diagram below.

I would expect that your leaders would recognized that the lines must all be at the far left consistent with our expectation of our employees. There is no place where, in good conscience, we can draw these lines other than at the awareness level. This shift now drives the culture to accountability and responsibility, increased credibility, effective corrective actions, and continuous improvement.

About the Author:

As the founder of BRANTA Worldwide, Rodney Grieve has more than two-decades of hands-on leadership development and health and safety experience. A nationally recognized speaker, facilitator, and author (Defend Your Profits: Safety Tools for Bottom Line Improvement and SOAR: A Gate to Gate Journey of Leadership Essentials), Rodney personally conducts Branta’s workshops and mentoring programs. For more information, please contact Rodney directly at Rodney@branta.com or give him a call at 916.487.1919.

Loss Control

If A Football Team Was Run Like Most Safety Programs

Football as a Business

After watching the Super Bowl this past weekend, I started to think, “What if a football team was run like a business?” The offensive team would be the production department, always pushing for the goal before the big deadline. And the defensive team would be sales and marketing, always watching the marketplace and the competition; ready to react. The head coach is obviously the CEO with his middle management staff running the different “departments”.

And imagine for a moment, that a failed game-winning field goal attempt was treated like an employee injury.

How it Would Work

First of all, each player’s contract will provide an annual bonus based on the lack of failed game- winning field goal attempts. The actual number of field goals made will be irrelevant, and any failed attempts early in the game or during lopsided games will be disregarded as minor. The field goal kicker will be held personally responsible for all failed game-winning attempts, regardless of distance or weather conditions.

Bad snaps, poor placement, or blocked kicks due to missed blocking assignments will not be considered. The fact that the attempt was unsuccessful will be the only measurable.

Secondly, there would be specific written procedures as to the proper method for kicking game- winning field goals. Although the kicker will be required to implement these procedures, he will not be involved in their development. An individual familiar with the basic rules of football and a slight knowledge of kicking will be tasked to write the procedures and conduct the training. Once the procedure is written, it will be placed in a binder with a bunch of other procedures never to be looked at again. Annually, the kicker will be required to attend four-hours of classroom training on the kicking procedure.

The kicking coach, as well as any other coaches, may or may not be required to attend this training. If the coach is required to attend, he will leave the training at least four times per hour to address other “more important issues”.

After the Football Missed Kick

The head coach would confer with the kicking coach only after a failed game-winning field goal attempt. This meeting would cover the following topics:

1. Who knows about the failed attempt? (Management, the fans, or, especially, the Football Rules Agency) (Note: If no one noticed the failed attempt, the meeting will be finished and no corrective actions will be taken)

2. What is the kicker’s salary and is his contract guaranteed? (Note: If the salary is guaranteed and the team will lose significant money if the kicker leaves, the meeting will be finished and no corrective action will be taken)

3. Are there any other kickers available? (Note: If no other kickers are available at the same salary, the meeting will be finished and no corrective action will be taken)

4. If the kicker a good guy? (Note: If the kicker is popular, the meeting will be finished and no corrective action will be taken)

5. How long has the kicker been kicking?

6. When was the kicker last trained on the written procedures for game-winning field goal attempts

7. Did the kicker follow the written procedures for game-winning field goal attempts?

8. Also, how many past failed game-winning field goal attempts has the kicker been involved with?

 

Result of the Meeting

Based on the meeting, the kicker will be given a verbal warning and be required to attend an additional four hours of classroom training to cover the same procedures. The entire team will be required to attend an all-hands team meeting to discuss the team’s scoring philosophy. Once again, coaches will not be required to attend. A second missed game-winning field goal will result in four hours of classroom training and a three-day suspension without pay. If the Football Rules Agency finds out about the failed attempts, the kicking coach will be fired.

Does this sound familiar? If your management team is just tracking claims, and not total incidents, they are missing the point.

Still have questions? Still want more information. Contact a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444. Or visit our website here.

About the Author:

As the founder of BRANTA Worldwide, Rodney Grieve has more than two-decades of hands-on leadership development and health and safety experience. A nationally recognized speaker, facilitator, and author (Defend Your Profits: Safety Tools for Bottom Line Improvement and SOAR: A Gate to Gate Journey of Leadership Essentials), Rodney personally conducts Branta’s workshops and mentoring programs. For more information, please contact Rodney directly at Rodney@branta.com or give him a call at 916.487.1919.

Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, General Liability Insurance, Human Services Practice Group Content, Loss Control, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content, Workers Compensation Insurance

How These Companies Experience 48% Less Safety Incidents

Source: blogs.salesforce.com

I had the opportunity to listen to Tony Robbins speak for the first time this past month. He spoke for nearly 3 hours about the power of “engagement” and how it can help you gain a competitive edge in both your business and personal life. Being in risk management, he certainly got my attention when he rattled off a few statistics:

“Work units in the top quartile in employee engagement experience:

  • 48% fewer safety incidents

  • 41% fewer patient safety incidents

  • 41% fewer quality defects”

These companies also saw:

  • 25% to 65% less turnover (depending on industry)
  • 28% less shrinkage
  • 37% less absenteeism
  • 10% improvement in customer satisfaction
  • 22% in profitability
  • 21% in productivity

Source: State of the American Workplace – Gallup

It certainly makes sense, right? To put it simply happier employees are more likely to be focused and want to perform better. They’re also less likely to take advantage of their employer. But like me, you might have some questions such as, what exactly is “engagement”? How is it measured? How can I get it? When I got home I took a deep dive in to Gallup’s 70 page study on the subject. Like me, you might be shocked at some of the statistics within it.

Continue reading How These Companies Experience 48% Less Safety Incidents →

Claims Management, Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, HR Challenges, Human Services Practice Group Content, Loss Control, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content, Workers Compensation Insurance

Does it Make Sense to Pay Injured Employees Twice or Even Three Times?

Unfortunately this is a question facing both interstate and intrastate trucking companies whose home office is in state “A” but they operate in states B,C,D,E. etc… These companies face what is called Multi-State Exposure. This occurs when a driver gets injured on the job in a different state from which his company is domiciled. What nobody tells these companies is that the driver has the ability to receive benefits from more than one state on your dime!

Competitive rates for Workers Comp Insurance in the trucking industry are difficult to obtain due to the difficulty the underwriter faces assessing the risk. Add multiple state workers comp laws into that equation and you have a recipe for high premiums, open claims and payouts that are double and even triple what they should be.

When an out of state claim happens, two jurisdictions come in to play. If the claim is handled by the company’s home state the driver will retain legal counsel in the state in which the injury occurred.  Once qualified to receive benefits from the home state, the driver can go the state where the injury occurred and receive additional benefits. This is known as “Piggybacking.” This is the cost of not fully comprehending the Workers Comp Laws in the states you operate in and this can certainly be an expensive lesson.

Continue reading Does it Make Sense to Pay Injured Employees Twice or Even Three Times? →

Commercial Auto, Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, Human Services Practice Group Content, Loss Control, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content

How to Identify & Correct High Risk Drivers – An Intro to Best Practice Fleet Safety

If your organization relies on drivers as an integral part of day-to-day operations, you are probably aware of the extremely high risk that you are carrying. After all, motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of workplace fatalities. While safety innovations continue to play a role in improving accident prevention and outcomes, fleet and safety managers must raise the bar when it comes to improving driver behavior. With litigation judgments and settlements often surpassing a million dollars, it simply makes good financial sense for companies to be more proactive on the fleet-safety front. But more importantly, each time you collect data, identify unsafe behaviors, and take time out to coach drivers and provide proper training, you could also be saving a life.

Motivated to improve your fleet safety, productivity, and efficiency? Here’s how:

Continue reading How to Identify & Correct High Risk Drivers – An Intro to Best Practice Fleet Safety →

Construction Practice Group Content, General Liability Insurance, Loss Control, OSHA, Other, Workers Compensation Insurance

Supervisors And Personal Protective Equipment

Supervisors are one of the most important components to a tight workers compensation program. If a hazard is reported in the workplace, it is the supervisor’s job to rectify it and do everything possible to protect his/her workers.

Hazards exist in every workplace in many different forms. For example, sharp edges, falling objects, flying sparks, chemicals, noise and a myriad of other potentially dangerous situations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers protect their employees from workplace hazards that can cause injury.

Controlling a hazard at its source is the best way to protect employees. Depending on the hazard, supervisors should use engineering or work practice controls first to manage or eliminate hazards to the greatest extent possible. For example, building a barrier between the hazard and the employees is an engineering control; changing the way in which employees perform their work is a work practice control.

Continue reading Supervisors And Personal Protective Equipment →

Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, Human Services Practice Group Content, Loss Control, OSHA, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content, Workers Compensation Insurance

“Careful Our Daddies Work Here” Site Safety Posters Are Here

As you and your team are well aware,  maintaining a safe work site pays huge dividends to the long term cost structure for your company. With the high cost of employee injuries impacting both your future workers compensation & liability insurance premiums ;  we think it’s wise to keep safety top of mind each day as workers enter your worksite.  Building a culture of safety & accountability takes long term vision, leadership, & commitment.

We developed this safety poster to assist in this endeavor. The purpose is to remind workers each day as they enter your site to work safe. Safety doesn’t just affect your immediate crew, there are wives, mothers, and children that eagerly anticipate the safe return home of their loved ones. Who better to drive this message home than children?

We suggest you hang these in high traffic areas. Perhaps your work site trailers, the elevators, lifts or anywhere the workers enter and exit regularly to remind them what’s at stake. A safe work site is not an accident; it’s born from good design and solid leadership at all levels. We know you agree which is why these “Profit Tools” have been made available.

Please note you will receive copies in both English and Spanish.

Continue reading “Careful Our Daddies Work Here” Site Safety Posters Are Here →