Business Protection Bulletin

Industrial accidents, on the job injuries, begin with cause and end with effect; they are not, in any real sense, accidents. For this reason, any injury mandates investigation, correction, and forecasting.

What are the proper steps in investigation?

1. Reserve Judgment. Questioning employees can be tricky. Assure everyone knows the facts are important. You’re trying to build a narrative about an incident, not to fire someone.
2. Begin with the physical location of the incident. Are guards in place, floors even, floors wet, proper equipment in place? Is the physical location in good working order?
3. Was personal protection equipment available and in use?
4. Gather any recordings of the incident, visual or audio.
5. You have your setting, now interview the characters. Interview the injured party, how did this incident occur? Interview co-workers who witnessed events leading up to the moment or the incident.
6. Find the Human Error. Always a factor, and here’s why: either the employee erred in the execution of their job, or management erred in their design of the job.
7. Mentally walk through the incident after creating the narrative of events. Where could this incident have been prevented?

These steps should lead to a narrative which is specific about the incident from just before cause to effect, not just a description of an injury, but a detailed story describing what happened.

The investigation should state whether or not procedures were followed, and were those procedures adequate in protecting the employee. Why were they appropriate or ineffective?

Did the normal work conditions lead to injury, or did some unusual conditions play a part?

Define the unsafe elements: employee behavior, management process, workplace conditions, personal protection, time of day, time into the shift (weariness), any event or condition contributing to the injury.

Find the primary cause, secondary cause and tertiary cause of the incident.

Employee fell down and broke their wrist does not tell the story, and not much can be gleaned from that report to prevent future incidents.

Employee lost footing when stepping into a pothole in the parking lot and broke their wrist. The employee was carrying a load which blocked their view, and was too heavy. This narrative suggests:

• fix the parking lot to create a smooth surface
• teach employees about carrying loads
• use hand trucks for heavy or large loads.

This report can prevent future incidents. Who, what, why, when, where and how.

Step 8: Forecast incidents by applying these lessons learned from the investigation by inspecting similar components across company operations. Fix the potential problems before the incidents occur.

Driving is a skill. At training camp, veteran football players start with fundamental drills: blocking, tackling, throwing, catching and running. Why? Didn’t they learn that stuff in pee-wee ball? Professional athletes still get into poor habits. And so do your professional drivers.

Skills are honed, refreshed, updated, practiced and coached. Think about these words when discussing defensive driving.

Drug free, no cell phones, well-rested and physical fitness for the job are driver requirements to ready them to sit in the vehicle. These are company obligations for safe operations: assure the driver is ready to take the wheel, schedule deliveries with enough time to drive safely and assure the drivers are well-instructed and coached in defensive driving.

Standard operating procedures and company culture set the stage for safe driving. Set procedures and expectations which reflect safety as more important than on-time delivery. The best way to accomplish this goal is to allow plenty of time for delivery. Realistic driving schedules accounting for traffic and seasonal variations take management logistics skill, but they assure safe delivery of goods and services.

The company culture expresses the value of safe driving above delivery schedule. Checking driver fitness and logistical favor-ability towards safety lets the driver know it’s up to his skill level to complete a do-able task.

On line products regarding safe driving can be useful as reminders, but direct monitoring and correction work better.

Catch the drivers doing something right. Whether it’s a thorough pre-trip inspection of the vehicle, buckling up or turning off their cell phones, praise good behavior. Make a point of positive reinforcement for safe driving habits. Drivers tend to get negative criticism more often than positive reward. Like the left tackle who hears about his missed block causing a sack, the driver only hears about his one accident in ten years.

If praised regularly for safe driving, the driver is more willing to accept criticism or corrective action for poor habits.

Employ trainers to re-evaluate drivers at least annually on a ride-along. Small habits can cause large accidents.

HAZWOPER is short for Hazardous Waste Operation and Emergency Response. Emergency responders or operations likely to encounter hazardous waste partake in this training.

o One of the top causes of ignition is nine vault batteries thought to be dead, and the two terminals contact the same piece of metal. A circuit is completed and the battery heats up igniting other trash. Electric tape over the two terminals wrapped around the battery prevents this problem.

o Schedule cleaning with specific chemicals and procedures.

o Store chemicals properly and be aware of dangerous combinations which should never be stored together.

• Instruct all employees in HAZWOPER awareness. In a chemical environment, even in an office, combinations of inks, solvents, cleaners, heat and poor storage habits can create unhealthy conditions quickly.
• Create standard operating procedures for all cleaning and maintenance chores to avoid incorrectly disposing of waste products.
• Choose products which are easily recycled, for example ink cartridges. Recycling avoids combining chemicals in the trash can.
• Inspect your building for mold and mildew and remediate the smallest colony before it grows. Professionally inspect your duct work at least annually and pre-treat for biological hazardous material. Using positive pressure (pumping clean filtered air into your building) can reduce the biological intrusion through cracks and air seeps throughout your building.
• On line or in classroom instruction is available to create awareness and provide knowledge for all employees.
• Awareness: your best defense against environmental hazards.

Document, in this case, is a verb, it’s action; not a noun, like a few pages clipped together in a drawer.

Insurance companies receive snapshots of your business. The application, the loss control survey, the claim report, all the moments captured in time; and then the insurance company sets a price to reflect the motion picture that is your business.

Arguably, your credit report tells your story over time. Underwriters consider this an important document for that reason. The past behavior over time predicts the future.
You need to build a safety program(credit report). This report requires documentation.

A written safety plan requires thoughtful reflection on your company values; it answers the question: where does worker safety and liability avoidance rank among your priorities? The written document shows a commitment to safety, the standard operating procedures for a safe work environment.

Safety meeting minutes demonstrate that you hold meetings, that workers attend, the subject matter covered, and rules or procedures implemented.

Injury investigations show your commitment to understanding how an injury occurred and how to avoid the same injury in the future.

The documented plan shows safety program evolution over time. Management has a standard of safety, and manages towards that goal.

Some of the reports which demonstrate your safety culture:
1. All required government paperwork completed, up to date, and organized.
2. Employee safety meetings with updated standard operating procedures.
3. Written and posted evacuation plans, documented fire drills.
4. Contracts to inspect and update fire safety equipment.
5. Vehicle maintenance schedules and logs.
6. Equipment maintenance schedules and logs.
7. Driver documentation with annual physicals and driving records.
8. Quality control and assurance documents for products or completed operations.

These reports put motion to those insurance company snapshots. They show process. Insurance companies reward this behavior with lower premiums. Document your safety culture.

Inland flooding represents twenty percent of all flood claims.
Much of this statistic is due to development. More area is impervious pavement, so storm water flows as sheet runoff to the next site or the nearest creek. The creeks and rivers collect water much faster than natural flow and the banks overflow more often as a result. Floods occur naturally inland too in just relatively low areas.

Look at the area surrounding your location. Is there any more room for potential development up-gradient from your site? Check for a mile or so. If so, it’s a good idea to look into flood insurance.

Because flooding is less likely, premiums will not be excessive. But, flooding must be written well ahead of predicted flood events.

Flood insurance is written as a building value or a contents value. You can mitigate some flood damage by storing vulnerable goods off the floor.

Hurricanes have forced inland and more northerly in the last few years. Landfall can be anywhere on the east or Gulf coast. The volume of rain carried by hurricanes devastates unprepared communities. Low lying areas receive the majority of the storm water, and it comes fast.

Richmond, Virginia suffered a massive storm impact when one flood came down the James River, which the flood walls repelled. But, a second large storm drenched the land side of the same walls. So flood walls held the storm in. Of course, this two-storm system is rare and impossible to plan prevention.

The lesson learned is to apply the risk management techniques of risk transfer. Figure the largest loss a flood can cause. Remember, you may not be able to get to your property to move goods before the storm.

Investigate flood insurance. It does take time to implement a program, and it must be in place prior to storm warnings. Do not procrastinate.

Think about MVRs like investigative journalism, the five Ws, who, what, when, where, why.

Who should order the MVRs for employees or potential drivers? On whom should you pull the records?

The fleet manager or operations manager needs a standard operating procedure to request permission from the driver or potential hire. Yes, obtain written permission. Every driver and every new hire should be screened by their driving record. The driving record is like their credit rating. It may not be a perfect mirror of their habits, but it is a good general indicator.

The standard procedure needs to include a maximum number of violations and accidents. Perhaps one moving violation within a year, two in four years and no at-fault accidents make a good hard rule. Major violations should be defined and held to zero tolerance. Be vigilant and consistent. You cannot discriminate in this area without inviting employee practice litigation.

The MVRs should be reviewed every six months for current employees, and before employment begins for potential new hires. Again, consistency. Why six months? Driving habits change with personal issues. Your driver may not be concentrating, perhaps they’re on the phone or texting for pressing personal reasons. You want to ban all phone or texting while driving, and intervene with a slipping driver early.

Review the record in privacy with the employee. Pats on the back or some small reward for the good records, intervention for the ones with some issues.

Driving on public roads may be the biggest exposure to risk many companies face. Certainly the greatest chance of a catastrophic claim is vehicle use for most. Trust this risk to drivers with quality habits, sound judgment, and consistent results.

Driver recruitment and retention is the cornerstone to a great risk management program for your fleet. Support these drivers with a maintenance program and up-dated fleet. Make life easier for your drivers and retaining them will follow.

What happens to your assets when the liability limits are exceeded? If you have a liability left, your own assets cover the difference. These assets include your ownership in a closely held corporation.

Your co-owners probably don’t want your accident victim who just sued you as a partner.

Proper risk management identifies all exposures to loss. One often overlooked issue is loss of ownership control due to personal liability.

Co-owners often consider divorce scenarios or the death of a shareholder. Life insurance resolves the death issue. First right to purchase will generally resolve divorce cases. Once assets are placed into bankruptcy, however, buyout options will become more difficult to execute.

If the liability issue takes years to resolve, that ownership share may be in limbo for the duration.

Avoid this risk by requiring all shareholders to carry some high minimum limits of personal liability. It’s the responsible approach to ownership.

One way to accomplish this is the combined personal and business umbrella policy. Endorse the umbrella to include shareholders.

This endorsement will require high underlying limits of liability on homeowners-policies and personal automobile.

This endorsement is not offered by every umbrella carrier or in every state. But ask your insurance agent about the option.

The important outcome ties personal liability management to the right to own a piece of a closely held corporate entity or partnership. Fate should not choose the next shareholder.

Use an independent service to review all partners personal risk management situation. Assure adequate limits are in place including truly disastrous scenarios. Add layers of umbrella as needed or endorse the company policy.

Having trouble thinking of possible liability losses for your partner?
1. The daughter, son, foreign exchange student grabs the family car and goes on a drunken joyride.
2. The spouse slanders a local business rival.
3. Your personal computer is hacked and some employee personal information is backed up on the memory stick attached.

Most of the scenarios you cannot think of are the better reasons to manage the owners personal risks.

1. Decide which data are truly mission critical: supply chain status, current orders, financial statements, bank accounts, payables, receivables, employee data, and customer data.

2. Copy these data updated monthly. One copy goes into the safety deposit box at the bank. One to a trusted officer.

3. Copy daily transactions for the month to the officer’s memory stick. Update two sets at month’s end.