Risk Management Bulletin

Life has its ups and downs. That certainly holds true for your employees who work on or use ladders and scaffolds. However, the downs can be especially painful. Here are some ways to avoid those dangers — and reduce the risk to your business:

• Have ladders inspected before every use and, if defective, taken out of service. The inspection should look for cracks, wood splinters, or moving parts that bind or are disconnected or misaligned, along with worn ropes on extension ladders. Your workers don’t want to find out about them eight feet in the air. Have steps or rungs checked for looseness and cleaned of slippery spots. Make sure that workers wear shoes with nonslip surfaces.
• Stepladders should be stored upright, with simple and extension ladders stored flat, so they don’t warp with age. It’s also okay to store ladders horizontally on wall hooks.
• Transporting ladders takes special care. The old silent movie sight gag about carrying a ladder so that the back end swings around and whacks people holds true. Always have workers maintain clear vision the entire length of the ladder and beyond — and, if the ladders are carried on a vehicle, double-check the mountings.
• Before workers put the ladder in place, have them scan the location; be sure that both feet are on firm ground; and avoid power lines, or leaning the ladder on any unstable surface.
• Make sure that workers observe the 1 to 4 rule: placing the ladder horizontally one-quarter of its vertical length, so a 12-foot ladder should be positioned 3 feet from the wall. If they’re using an extension ladder, keep 3 feet of overlap between sections. It’s also wise to physically tie the ladder’s top and bottom to fixed points to keep so it won’t move.
• When it’s time to climb, workers who carry equipment up should always wear a tool belt and maintain three-point contact with the ladder (both hands and one foot, or both feet and one hand). Never allow them go above three rungs from the top, and require them come down and move the ladder if the work is beyond their reach.
• Finally, make sure that your workers learn the bear climb: The right foot and hand moving simultaneously, followed by the left hand and foot. This might feel funny at first — but it could save lives and avoid serious injury.

HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead!
HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead!
HeadOn. Apply directly …

OK, we’ll stop before we apply a headache to your forehead. But we’re repeating one of America’s most annoying TV ads (even the makers of HeadOn® admit it!) to make a point about safety training: When you’re trying to convince someone to do something, repetition works.

It worked for HeadOn, getting people to buy more than 6 million tubes of the stuff. And it will work for you in getting your workers to remember to follow safety procedures that might save all of you a headache!

Here are some reasons why:

• Trainees learn at different rates. Not everyone picks up new information the same way: Some might get things the first time you tell or show them; others might need several exposures to the material. The trick in working with a group is to use the more agile learners to help the rest, while you supervise them all.
• Trainees learn in different mode. Some people are visual learners, others audio-oriented, and still others process new information best by tactile means, actually touching or doing a new task. This means that you should not only repeat the material but also vary the ways you present it. A toolbox talk might work for some. Others need to see a PowerPoint® or video. Still others need to do the task.
• Don’t just do what I say, do what I do. To ensure that all learners pick up a new procedure — such as how to operate equipment safely or utilize PPE — demonstrate it several times. Then let students do it themselves, while you coach and provide feedback.
• Reinforcement Rocks! Few TV advertisers show their ad just once. Instead, their commercials run day after day, at spaced intervals. Print advertisers have also learned that it can be more effective to run a small newspaper ad day after day rather than one big full-page ad only once. Trainers call this “reinforcement,” and there’s an important reason that it’s needed.

“Trainees can remember 90% of what they’ve learned an hour after training,” says expert trainer Bob Pike, They then remember “50% after a day, 25% after two days, and only 10% after 30 days.” That’s why subject matter needs to be revisited six times before it can be considered to be truly learned.

Of course, unlike those annoying commercials that are always the same, your best strategy in revisiting topics is to change your approach each time: teach the same material, but with a new spin. Change your visuals, have new real-life examples, have different types of demonstrations, or even have a new person do the training. But the basic principle of repeating the key information will remain — or, as HeadOn might put it, Repetition: Apply directly to your employees. Because it works … works … works.

Our risk management professionals would be glad to work with you in developing and refining an effective, comprehensive safety education program.

To make sure that you obtain the best value in protecting your business against the risks it faces, we work closely with a number of quality insurance companies, providing their underwriters with comprehensive information on your coverage requirements, together with your pricing and servicing expectations. You can help us help you by building and maintaining a “risk profile” that lists your exposures, loss data, and insurance contracts. This list should include (but not be limited to):

• A narrative history of your firm that’s both positive and realistic. Well-managed businesses that have adapted well during up and down economic cycles will encourage underwriters to provide competitive prices on your account.
• Résumés of key management show that you know your business and have a great team behind you.
• Sales brochures and Web pages, if applicable.
• A Dun &Bradstreet Report on your business. If D&B is unable to complete a report, you might get a lower financial grading. Even if you’ve had a few bumps along the financial road, some insurance companies will be willing to work with you — but not if they have to pull teeth to get the relevant information.
• Audited financials, if applicable.
• Your estimated sales, Workers Compensation payroll, automobile fleet, and property and equipment values.
• Historic sales, payroll, and auto units for the past five years.
• Insurer loss runs/claim runs for the previous five years on all policies, valued within 90 days of your renewal.
• An outline of your safety plan(s).
• Fleet maintenance schedules.
• Your Workers Compensation experience modification factor (Comp mod), if applicable.

Insurance companies have invested heavily in computer systems that track all the relevant data on their clients. Be sure to review this information for accuracy and add it to your own database. Maintaining a comprehensive, accurate and current “risk profile” and staying on top of how this information is presented to company underwriters will give you a far better chance of securing a competitive, effective, and affordable insurance program.

One out of five workers in developed nations doesn’t enjoy the luxury of sleeping at night. Policing, medical care, and specialized industrial and service jobs go on 24 hours a day — which means that somebody has to be out there on the graveyard shift to keep society running.

Workplace experts have studied the effects of this topsy-turvy existence on the lives and health of shift workers.

“People who work other than the standard daytime shifts face a host of challenges,” notes safety writer Barbara Manning Grimm, “including physical and mental fatigue, digestive problems, stress, and a feeling of isolation from family, friends, and the community. There’s also evidence that shift workers are at greater risk of accidents.”

There might be another, more sinister risk: Some studies show that night work raises the occurrence of some cancers, as the production of melatonin, a hormone created during sleep which suppresses tumors, is itself suppressed by staying awake. (However this is a controversial finding because other studies haven’t shown any effect between melatonin production and cancer rates).

To help employers deal with the safety issues involved in shift work, we’d recommend these guidelines:

• Explain what shift work entails. Before they take a job on the night shift, workers should have time to consider how it will change their lives. Give them a chance to think things over before agreeing to this.
• Request volunteers. Some workers would rather work nights. Maybe it lets them be home when a spouse is working so that children have 24-hour child care, or maybe they just want their days free for other pursuits. In any case, volunteers will have a more positive attitude toward the job than those simply assigned to it.
• Pay a differential. A few extra dollars in the paycheck can provide a powerful incentive.
• Light the work area brightly. Although it won’t replace sunlight, several studies suggest that bright light increases alertness. This is especially important between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., when accident rates are highest.
• Get physical. Offer an exercise break. A fast-moving game of Ping-Pong or even a brisk walk might ward off sleepiness until the shift is over.
• Schedule naptime. Allow workers to close their eyes for about 15 minutes, mid-shift. Any longer, though, and your crew can drop into a deep sleep rhythm that will make them less alert when you wake them.
• Allow time off for family functions. Night workers do have a daytime life, and letting them enjoy it will pay big dividends in morale, which usually translates to gains in productivity.

Most on-the-job accidents occur in “safe” workplaces. Why? Employee error. What can you do about it? Invest in a comprehensive employee safety motivation program that will reduce injuries in your workplace — increase productivity — and save you money. Some workplace injuries are due to lack of appropriate safety equipment or unsafe processes and procedures — problems that workplace safety laws can help correct. However, the most pervasive cause of these injuries is employee error (taking unneeded chances without thinking about them). For example, a worker might suffer a back injury despite having been trained in back safety, having a safety belt available, and knowing that there’s a risk.

Your employees might fail to minimize their workplace risks for a number of reasons, either related to or independent of the job. Job-related excuses for a back injury might include:

• “I’ve picked up bigger boxes than this before without hurting myself.”
• “Back belts are for sissies.”
• “I’m too busy to stop and get a belt.”

In these cases, the employee at least thought about possible danger in lifting and alternatives. Some non-job-related reasons for ignoring safety procedures might be:

• “I’m mad at my spouse. My kids are a pain.”
• “How am I going to get my car fixed? Where will the money come from?”
• “What should I wear tonight? Do the Joneses like asparagus?”
• “I sure need a cigarette. When’s my break?”

The solution to this cavalier attitude toward safety is to develop an employee motivation program. The first step in an effective safety motivation program is marketing. You must instill the value of safety, communicate a commitment to safety, and motivate supervisors and employees to think and act safely. Rather than emphasizing management and control of responses to injury or illness, work toward preventing them and promoting safety. These efforts could pay big dividends — and lower your insurance premium.

Support the motivation program by committing to needed costs, promotions, and the total employee-motivation effort. Although employee motivation programs have been shown to provide a terrific savings-to-cost ratio, they do involve costs. If you save $25,000 on Workers Compensation, you won’t automatically get some of this money to spend on safety. However, the rate of return on an effective safety program can be $4 to $10 for every dollar invested.

Promote and maintain safety awareness by setting goals, rewarding success, and acknowledging failures. The employee motivation job isn’t complete till the paperwork is finished. Training must include program evaluation and trainee feedback for both supervisors and employees. Base your motivation program on awards, contests, premiums, and so forth. It’s essential to publicize such rewards as lottery tickets, selected gifts, savings bonds, and cash. However, no rewards will work without the basic structure of a workplace safety program.

“If your idea of orienting a new employee is to quickly introduce them around and show them the bathroom and the coffee room, you need to reorient yourself.”

So warns safety training expert Dave Duncan — and industry statistics back him up. New employees are five times more likely to suffer a lost-time injury on the job within their first month than are more experienced workers. And, according to the Safety.BLR.com Web site, two in five workers injured on the job have been doing it less than a year.

Why are “newbies” so vulnerable, and more important, what can you do about it?

High injury rates are caused by a combination of ignorance and fear on the part of workers and employers alike. It’s no surprise that new workers are unfamiliar with the tools, conditions, and most important, safety hazards, associated with the job. However, many employers assume that new employees know more than they do. Certain jobs require precautions that might seem like common sense to someone who has spent years doing them, but are hazards that newcomers have never even thought about.

The fear comes when a rookie worker refusing to ask questions, so they won’t seem unable to do the job — and be vulnerable to termination. Questions also expand an instructor’s ability to deliver their knowledge by reminding them of things that they didn’t explain fully or forgot to mention. Supervisors need to remind new workers again and again that the more questions, the better.

Here’s how to encourage safe-mindedness on the job from Day One:

• Acclimate new hires to workplace safety starts as soon as possible. According to the BusinessKnowledgeSource.com Web site, orientation is the perfect place to introduce safety training to a new worker. The new hire packet should include a company safety policy that covers generic concerns and resources for additional information so that the employee feels comfortable asking questions.
• Incorporate safety information in your walk-through of the facility. While showing new workers the lay of the land, point out the safety elements you’ve built in, such as the location of fire exits and extinguishers, first-aid kits, and eyewash stations. Also stress less obvious safety features, such as how wide you’ve made walkways so that forklifts can safely traverse the area, and let employees know that they can make the workplace safer by keeping these pathways clean and clear. Imparting safety knowledge will also make the newcomer feel valued and informed, leading to a more engaged and productive employee.
• Last, but not least: If you haven’t already done so, set up and monitor a comprehensive safety training program for new hires.

Our risk management professionals would be happy to offer their advice. Just give us a call, or send an e-mail.

Once your employees have gone through safety training, make sure that they use what they’ve learned to make their jobs safer. When workers know the safest way to perform their duties, you’ll have a healthier workplace with fewer accidents and injuries.

This four-step approach to ongoing job safety will pay dividends:

1. Team up to solve problems and improve safety. One of the best ways to encourage employee participation in workplace safety is through the work of safety committees. You can also set up employee teams in every department to identify and solve safety problems specific to particular work areas and jobs. Have team members gather information, analyze possible causes of safety problems, develop and test solutions, and implement and monitor results. Being part of a safety team makes members feel that they share responsibility for workplace safety. This keeps your safety message alive and keeps employees engaged and learning even after they’ve completed the required training.
2. Talk up safety every day. Use every opportunity to talk to your people about safety. Keep them up to date on new information that affects their safety. Provide ongoing feedback, praising safe performance, correcting unsafe behavior, and pointing out areas for improvement. Make sure that communication flows both ways. Encourage your employees to come to you with safety suggestions, problems, and questions. A great way to encourage two-way communication about safety is to implement and support an active suggestion system.
3. Encourage employees to be hazard detectives — and reporters. Assign every worker the responsibility of looking for hazards in their work areas and throughout your facility. Set up an effective system for reporting safety and health problems, and respond promptly to correct hazards that employees identify. This is harder than it sounds because it means that management has to really listen when employees talk about safety problems and concerns. Accept the fact that because employees often know their jobs better than anyone else they’re in the best position to identify potential hazards that might otherwise be overlooked.
4. Create a “want-to” safety culture. Finally, try to create a safety culture that prompts employees to do the safe thing not because they have to, but because they want to avoid injuries. Help your workers see the value in making safe decisions. Remind them of how many safety-related decisions they make every day — and how one bad decision is all it takes to get hurt.

For more information on creating, and maintaining, a comprehensive and effective workplace program, feel free to get in touch with our agency team.

If disaster strikes, how well you’re protected against the risks facing your business can make the difference between survival and extinction. Once you’ve identified the risks involved, you have three basic options: (1) Reduce or eliminate them (avoidance); (2) accept them (acceptance); or (3) limit the financial damage by assigning the risks to an insurance company (risk transfer — or insurance).

Unfortunately, risk management protection through insurance often fails to go beyond Commercial Liability and Property coverages.

For example, Key Person Life policies on one or more key executives will reimburse your business against potential financial losses from their death. Business Interruption coverage can help keep you up and running after a disaster by covering payroll expenses and protecting against the loss of suppliers and buyers.

You should also consider other types of business insurance to minimize the damage from a catastrophe. In deciding on the policies that best fit your needs, ask these questions:

1. Are your coverage limits and deductibles appropriate?
2. For what types of disasters (perils) are you insured? Which perils are specifically excluded?
3. Does your insurance provide adequate protection to senior management against litigation from inadequate business continuity planning?
4. Does your coverage factor in inflation, improvements, and building code changes?
5. Is your coverage for “replacement cost” or “actual value” (cost less depreciation)?
6. Will your Business Interruption insurance pay loss of income and payroll expenses?
7. Is your documentation (serial numbers, dates of purchase, cost, receipts, photographs, etc.) current and detailed enough for your insurance company?
8. Do you have the originals of all policies secured in a fireproof cabinet, or off site, with copies readily available?
9. Are you covered for loss of power or other critical services?
10. What about coverage for a denial of access order issued by civil authorities?
11. Does your insurance cover losses from a disruption of transportation services?
12. If the Disaster Management Team makes a “disaster declaration,” will your insurance cover the costs charged by your alternate site vendor? What about the extra personnel and other costs associated with activating and operating the alternate site?
13. Do you carry enough Life insurance on key executives?
14. If you implement an effective Business Continuation Plan will your insurance premiums go down? Have you reviewed your coverage with your professional insurance advisor within the past year?

The time to take action is now — before it’s too late. We’d be happy to help.

Nearly one of four people aged 64 to 75 remain in the workforce — and the number is projected to skyrocket as the Baby Boomers reach retirement age, but want to stay active. The good news: Older workers have a lower injury rate. The bad news: Their injuries tend to be more serious and require more time away from work.

Senior workers have specific safety issues. Their retention is often shorter, they’re more easily distracted (for example, by noise in their environment) have a slower reaction time, declining vision and hearing, and a poorer sense of balance. What’s more, they sometimes deny their deteriorating abilities, which can lead them to try to work beyond their new limits.

These physical limitations lead to specific types of injuries for older workers:

• Falls caused by poor balance, slowed reaction time, visual problems, or distractions
• Sprains and strains from loss of strength, endurance, and flexibility
• Cardiopulmonary overexertion in heat or cold, at heights, using respirators, or in confined spaces
• Health or disease-related illnesses, such as diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, coronary artery disease, or hypertension
• Accumulation injuries after years of doing the same task, e.g., truck drivers who experience loss of hearing in the left ear from road noise with their cab window open

Look for these indicators that your older workers might need accommodations:

• Physical signs, such as fatigue or tripping
• Psychological or emotional signs, such as loss of patience or irritability
• Feedback from supervisors or co-workers on declining performance
• Numbers and patterns of sick days
• History of minor injuries or near misses

You can help protect senior workers by

• Finding ways for them to work smarter, not harder
• Decrease activities that require exertion, such as in working heat or cold or climbing ladders
• Adjusting work areas, such as installing better lighting, reducing noise, removing obstacles, and decreasing the need to bend or stoop
• Redefine standards of productivity
• Learning your workers’ limitations, perhaps by conducting annual hearing or vision tests

Make sure that safety culture becomes an institutional value. For example, when co-worker feedback indicates that an older worker is having trouble, don’t fire the person. This will discourage honest input from employees who feel responsible for their co-worker’s loss of employment.

Other ways to help keep valuable older employees on the job include:

• Wellness programs
• Flexible schedules
• Extra unpaid vacation
• More medical leave than the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires
• Allowing less than full-time work with full-time benefits
• Offering long weekends after heavy workweeks
• Giving more positive feedback than to younger workers
• Setting more specific goals
• Conducting ageism training for supervisors and co-workers to make them aware of the different working styles across the generations

Be warned! You could be on OSHA’s inspection and enforcement “hit list.” The agency will soon announce its 2008 Site-Specific Targeting (SST) plan that will focus on unannounced comprehensive of inspections high-hazard worksites in the 29 states covered by OSHA rules — it does not include companies targeted for inspection by state agencies in the 21 states that administer their own safety and health programs.

Here’s a five-step program to evaluate your chances of getting a visit from OSHA:

Step 1. Check your own injury and accident rates. Take a close look at your organization. Review your accident statistics, injury and illness logs, and incident rates, particularly your Days Away, Restricted, and Transferred (DART) rate, and Days Away from Work Injury and Illness (DAFWII) rate. You can determine your DART and DAFWII rates from the OSHA Form 300 log and Form 300A Summary.

Step 2. Look at OSHA’s trends in citations and violations for your industry. Go to the OSHA Website and review statistics about trends in citations and violations for your industry or for all workplaces. You can look at the number of citations for a particular regulation and, in some cases, right down to a paragraph within a regulation. To browse through the regulations that cover your industry, go here.

Step 3. Compare your incidence rates with those of your competitors. You can find the history of inspections of your competitors on the OSHA site here. The database also contains the list of citations by regulation number. Don’t forget to look at the General Duty Clause (GDC) citations. OSHA uses the GDC to cite any activity creating a hazard that’s not covered under a specific regulation, such as many activities that cause musculoskeletal disorder hazards.

Step 4. Determine whether you’re making the news. OSHA inspectors respond to news stories about an organization, even when the news is positive. In one case, a company was highlighted in a news story for the benefits it was providing to the community, but the images on TV showed some construction activity in the background that looked suspicious to someone who called OSHA. An inspector went out to the site and found violations.

If a news agency makes inquiries and wants information about you, carefully screen any comments or photographs given to it. Even a positive news story can inadvertently sting you when it comes to workplace safety and health.

Also, track news stories in your industry or geographical area that relate to workplace safety, especially stories about accidents and penalties. They can alert you to problems at your own facility and give you time to fix them before OSHA finds you.

Step 5. Monitor what’s new with OSHA. Keep an eye on OSHA’s Special Emphasis program for targeting certain high-hazard industries.