ROII Safety Services

Condition your workforce for safety

by Bob White ROII Safety Services Director

As the safety services director for ROII, I have the opportunity to research more injury cases than most. Even though it’s our job at ROII to process injury claims, it is always heartbreaking for us when a severe injury or fatality occurs.

Seeing life-changing injuries and their effects on families leads us to ask, “Why did this happen?” or “How could this have been avoided?” Sadly, the answer often is: No one thought to consider the element of safety.

Safety rules, regulations, training and personal protective equipment (PPE) all have their place in the picture of safety. However, unless employees think to use this training, knowledge and equipment, they do not serve their purpose. So, after researching years of injury claims, I’ve come to the $64,000 question:

How do you condition an employee to consider the element of safety as an automatic, second-nature response every time they perform a task?

I built ROII’s Help Minimize Risk class around this concept. In this class, I address a broad range of safety aspects, getting at the root causes of the accidents the safety industry seldom talks about. It is a class like no other. We’ll cover:

• Employee Retention Learn leadership skills that can improve company culture and retain skilled employees.

• Educating Employees to be Safer Employees Explore hidden costs and effects of injuries and ways to discuss these topics with employees.

• Habit: The Missing Link to Safety Instill work habits that avoid expensive workers’ comp claims, downtime and DOSH safety violations through a process of conditioning.

• Hiring Practices Create hiring practices and company policies to lower risk and serve as loss control tools.

• Creating a Culture of Teamwork Ten successful practices employers can incorporate to partner with employees to prevent workplace drug and alcohol use.

• Common Injuries and Ways to Avoid Them Share helpful safety products on the market and tips that help you avoid common injuries on the jobsite.

If you have questions about this class or are an ROII participant and want to receive ROII Safety Services’ weekly safety meeting topics, reach out to me at (360) 352-7800 ext. 117 or bobw@biaw.com.

To find out how you could earn an average of 37% on your workers’ comp premiums, visit ROII.com.