WATT’S UP SUWANNEE VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EMPLOYEE AND RETIREE NEWSLETTER | SPRING 2019
from the ceo Thank you for your contributions
SMORE
Safety Member Experience Outreach to Community Reliability Economic Viability
BONUS POINTS AVAILABLE: 10 | VALUE PER POINT: $64 | POINTS ACHIEVED: 8.32
For a while now, we’ve been placing special emphasis on our five core values, represented by the acronym SMORE — Safety, Member Experience, Outreach to Community, Reliability and Economic Viability. This year, the board of trustees has demonstrated its commitment to those values by offering an additional 1% of the cooperative’s pay budget as an incentive for achieving target metrics associated with the values. I’m pleased to say that as we approach the official start of summer, June 21, we are on track to achieve the goals established for 15 of the 17 metrics. Of course, there’s a lot of 2019 yet to go, and to earn the maximum $640 per-person bonus at the end of the year, we need to maintain our current excellent results while increasing participation in our United Way payroll deduction program and controlling expenses to bring controllable cost per meter down to within budget. Please let De Smith know if you would like to begin contributing to United Way. You can See CEO, Page 4
SAFETY
• DART – Represents accidents where someone is injured • Error Ratio – Measure of liability claims where SVEC is at fault • Vehicle Incident Rate – Vehicle incidents relative to miles driven
CONGRATULATIONS FOR 397 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITHOUT A LOST-TIME INJURY Commitment to Zero Contacts A recent study completed by NRECA and Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange (Federated) reveals that while electric cooperative safety programs overall have greatly reduced days lost to workplace injuries, the record of serious injuries while on the job has not improved. Most of these serious accidents involve human contact with
an energized power line or equipment. The Serious Injury and Fatalities study analyzed the workmen’s compensation records covering about 90% of electric cooperative employees from 2006 to 2016. While overall recordable injuries were down by approximately 50%, the number of serious incidents, defined as trauma leading to permanent life-altering effects and incurring medical expenses in excess of $100,000, did not decline. Of the 233 serious injuries and fatalities cases reported in the study, the leading cause was employee contact with enerContinued on next page