Data from the Employer Health and Safety Planning Tool Kit helps employers make more informed decisions about health and safety in their workplaces.
Photo credit: © WorkSafeBC (Workers’ Compensation
Board of B.C.), used with permission
A solution for avoiding musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) is brewing at Brewers Distributors Limited (BDL). The company is looking at personal lifting devices for their workers who handle significant amounts of product.
The impetus for this MSI initiative came from a report that Jeff Wilcox, BDL’s director of health and safety, pulled from WorkSafeBC’s online Employer Health and Safety Planning Tool Kit.
Says Jeff: “Using the report, I was able to show our senior decision-makers why we need to invest in these devices. I showed them how MSIs were the main drivers for our health care, ergonomic, and long-term disability claims.”
Employers can use the secure, interactive Tool Kit to see information about their:
- Premium rates and forecasted experience rating
- Injury rates and experience rating compared with others in their industry
- Safety performance
- Injury and claim details
- Industry risks
- Return-to-work performance
“The top benefit for me is that I am able to extract relevant data at a snapshot. In a heartbeat, I can develop a report for the senior team to show a trend. I love that,” says Jeff.
“We’ve invested in a number of initiatives and this data has been the impetus for tipping the scales for our decision-makers to say yes. It saves me from mining through the month-end or year-end reports we develop.”
Data helps employers see the benefits of health and safety
WorkSafeBC safety officers have opportunities to introduce the Tool Kit to employers they visit. Allan Goodman, a Prevention Field Services supervisor at WorkSafeBC, says a number of employers are benefiting from this easy-to-access data.
“Many employers already have an appreciation for where they are in terms of their general health and safety performance, but what they may not understand is where they’re at with claims and assessment costs,” Allan says. “When they see what it’s costing them, they understand the financial benefits they can gain by improving their overall health and safety performance — not to mention the health and safety of workers as well. They sometimes find it quite an eye-opener.”
While the Tool Kit is of most benefit for employers who have 50 or more workers and experience three or more time-loss claims per year, it’s worth checking out for all employers. WorkSafeBC also offers several other interactive tools that employers of all sizes may find useful:
Thanks to all for talking with me!
