Protecting a company’s most valuable asset – its employees – is of utmost
importance. Promoting workplace safety to help reduce employee injuries
and expensive claims is one way to help keep your workforce healthy and
productive, and keep your premiums down.
Loss control is designed to help prevent or reduce the possibility of a loss, or
to help reduce its severity if one does occur. Keep reading to find out more
about how loss control professionals can help create a workplace safety plan
to aid in reducing accident risks and workers’ comp claims.
Getting Started
A hazard assessment should be conducted by a loss control consultant and/or a
safety committee. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
recommends that two managers plus two additional employees make up your
internal safety committee.
The object is to look for anything that could pose a threat to your workforce, like
slippery floor surfaces or tripping hazards. Risks will vary depending upon the
workplace environment (manufacturing versus office work). By identifying
potential hazards and risks, this builds the foundation for a workplace safety plan.
Create an Action Plan
By creating an action plan for approaching these hazards, a business can help set
themselves up to successfully achieve their workplace safety goals. The action plan
should be unique to your workplace and be in alignment with the risks that were
identified in the hazard assessment. The plan is simple: describe the problem/risk
and provide a solution. The safety committee should be in charge of managing the
action plan and making sure it is being effectively carried out.
Training and Implementation
Training employees to observe loss control guidelines is an important part of any
program. This will help ensure that your employees keep safety top-of-mind and are
aware of workplace hazards.
For example, AmTrust offers training programs, including a streaming safety video
system that provides all active policyholders access to over 600 videos. The topics
range from back injury prevention to electrical safety to machine guarding. A
complete list of loss control training materials can be found here.
Effective communication is valuable in improving an overall safety system.
Incorporating reminders about safety in the workplace will further emphasize to
your employees the importance of following the company safety plan.
Record Keeping
Keeping accurate and detailed records is a key aspect of a workplace safety
program. It is also necessary for OSHA and other regulatory requirements. It
creates accountability and effective business management, while keeping track of
results for any safety inspections or insurance audits. In addition, it’s a form of loss
control in itself – enabling a business to learn from past experiences and identify
potential issues in the future, and ultimately help prevent losses.
Take Control of Your Losses
A good safety plan makes good business sense, and that starts with implementing
loss control into the workplace. The goal of an employer should be to provide a safe
work environment for all employees. This helps keeps your workplace healthy and
productive, and can keep insurance costs down.
Learn more about the loss control capabilities AmTrust has to offer, and check
out our blog post, “Take your loss control to the next level.”
For more details about AMT Service Corp feel free to
visit: http://blog.amtrustgroup.com/policywire/workplace-safety-with-losscontrol