WC Incentive Plan

CarrieMP

We have had a lot of workers comp claims in the past few years, primarily for slip/falls. We would like to impliment an incentive plan company-wide to try and reduce WC Claims. Has anyone ever done this at their company before? Was it successful? Do you guys have any suggestions on how we should organize it?

Any help is appreciated!

System

For every six months we go company-wide without a lost-time accident, everyone in the company gets a paid day off, a "Safety Day", and they may use it any time within one calendar year. About every 5-5 1/2 months people start asking if we've earned another safety day, so it's been a big incentive.

System

Just be careful that your program doesn't cause supervisors to pressure injured employees not to file a claim.

And you might ask for employee suggestions on how to reduce the number of slip-n-falls. Or stop hiring klutzes. x:D

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

HRQ

Rather than recognizing # of days without lost time injuries, etc, consider recognizing employees or departments who exhibit the right behaviors and follow procedure.

I don't know what your industry is, so I'm not sure what's causing the slip/falls. If you do regular safety inspections, award departemnts/employees each time they pass the inspection with no unsafe environment issues or behaviors.

Recognizing the behaviors and compliance with your programs will promote the same behavior and compliance, usually reducing claims.

From my experience, employees value recognition for what they DO (good housekeeping, training etc) not what they don't do. (not getting injured)

CarrieMP

We are a direct marketing company with a large call center. The majority of the slip falls are when people are going outside to smoke ciggeretts. We don't really have many safety inspections since employees here are all working at a desk, at my previous company I was in Biotech and even with the labs we never had as many workers comp issues as what I have seen here. So any suggestions would be great!
Thanks!
Carrie

HRQ

The majority of the slip falls are
>when people are going outside to smoke
>ciggeretts.

What the heck are they tripping on? Cables not covered or secured? Boxes or other debris? That would be something to inspect for.

Even office environments have safety hazards, like file cabinet drawers left open and people smack into them, or cords not taped down or secured so employees trip over them.

Let us know what is actually causing the falls and we can help some more. x:)

CarrieMP

Well we are located in Maine, so with the exception of a few months a year it is pretty cold with bad weather! Therefor most of the ee's with WC issues are slipping on ice right outside the office when they go out for a smoke break. We try and keep the ice sanded as much as possible but it doesn't seem to be stopping the falls... We also have had employees who trip just walking up the stairs, fall out of the chair when they lean back to far, you name it we have had it happen. While many of these incidents you would think would not cause big injuries, for some reason everyone seems to be getting big claims... I just don't get it.

Don D

I've joined the camp that believes we should not pay people extra to do what they ought to do in the first place. Most long time safety managers that I've come in contact with are opposed to rewarding people for not injuring themselves. I have found that the best disincentive for employees injuring themselves is the disciplinary writeup for safety violations and the ticket out of here for multiple violations. The message here is "If you work safely, you get to stay here".

Your smokers are setting you up, by the way.