What can employers do to keep their modification low?
The best way to keep your experience modification low is to prevent losses from happening in the first place. Here are some steps you can take to get there.
- First, develop a formal written safety program. The program should be designed to meet the needs of your particular industry and address many of the risks you face.
- Form a safety committee. A committee should have representatives from both management and the work force. The committee’s responsibility is to help identify problems and make recommendations, investigate loss causes and promote education of safe work habits. Some states, like Pennsylvania, have a credit for companies that meet the state Safety Committee guidelines.
- Have routine safety meetings with employees to talk about the exposures of that particular field. The more you talk about safety, the more committed you are to safety, and the more it will impact your employees.
- Understand that your corporate culture plays a big part in safety practices. Imbed safe work practices and a no-loss attitude in your company. If a loss does occur, investigate to uncover the root cause and take corrective action to prevent it from happening again. Treat near-misses the same as an accident or injury. It is critical that the message come from the top and that employees know that increasing safe work habits and reducing losses are important to the owners or senior management.
There are tremendous resources available and your broker should be able to guide you through the process.
Dennis Ianovale is a vice president with ECBM Insurance Brokers and Consultants. Reach him at (610) 668-7100 or [email protected].
