Can Effective Changes in Workers Comp Look Like This?
Instead of this reaction?
Boring. Workers compensation and public liability sound like well-covered, boring topics. “Cringe-worthy” as far as training in many employees’ eyes. OSHA made real improvements over past decades, lowering incidents by 10 – 20% where there is inspection and training, yet the improvement reached a floor and won’t go lower. Also, 40% of claims are non-traumatic injuries such as carpal tunnel. Slips and falls rack up an impressive 9,000,000 incidents per year and public liability claims cost millions and generate lots of adverse publicity and disruption. What if training could get the reaction in the big photo instead of the little photos above?
Is there an inner meaning to getting everyone in the company to look out for their own and fellow employees’ safety and well-being, and to get them to spot things that might injure a visitor? The very power of a company or institution comes from its cohesiveness. Two thousand pairs of eyes can see things that no dedicated single pair will see. Keeping a neat and tidy place in good repair is the very symbol of pride and ownership. On the other hand, walking past the same obviously broken and chipped concrete step or rusty and loose railing, day after day, is a symbol of resignation, defeat and burn-out. So, while cutting down on actual claims, aches, pains, lost days and lawsuits, why not use our unique methods to build company pride and a sense of ownership?
Continuing from core training in Verbally Defusing Violent Confrontations and in Preventing Sickness & Enjoying Well Being, this builds further self-respect and true comradery, while washing away any anti-company “Them Versus Us” thinking. You will get results!
Creating a company S.W.A.T. (Safety With Advanced Training) Team.
He’s got the safety goggles. He’s just not wearing them over his eyes! The bandana around his wrist could get snagged in machinery. This much is obvious. The question is, why do we do these unsafe acts?
Rules, repetition and penalties prove insufficient. We take new approaches to change attitudes and motivation.
Safety & Public Liability
Integrally related to Workers Comp is Safety & Public Liability. While workers comp clearly applies to all employees, some may question how these other issues relate to them. We spend one-quarter of the time of this topic on them but we believe that everyone in the company should spend at least that much time. For one, 10,000 pairs of eyes is better than ten pairs of eyes to spot accidents-waiting-to-happen and hazards.
Secondly, by being trained even briefly on how to look for and observe such hazards — even just seeing and hearing it once — it makes each individual more aware. When they know how to spot something like an unsafe floor transition, or a hard-to-see pole or post in the parking lot, this sinks into the mind permanently. We believe that over the course of a lifetime this brief intro will avoid one accident for each person.
Also we are training that if you lean against a loose railing, or there is no railing where there ought to be one, it is good — C’mon! — to report it.
Safety S.W.A.T. Team
However, although we know that making everyone more aware will increase safety, we can’t rely on the general employees to vigilantly do safety inspections in an ongoing way. For that we select several internal champions as our Safety S.W.A.T. (Safety With A Team). Outside of the general audience training we will specially train them to do this. There are 9,000,000 slip and falls per year. Public liability claims have many preventable sources.