Tag: TRIR

ISN News

2011 ISN Annual Users Conference: Speaker Edwin G. Foulke, Jr.

November 3rd, 2011 · ISN Team - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to ISN’s 2011 Annual Users Conference.  One of our speakers, Ed Foulke, highlights many important safety topics in his presentation, entitled“13 Ways to Improve Your Safety Program While Increasing Your Productivity and Profitability”. 

Mr. Foulke discusses the importance of prioritizing safety and health in your company.  He says that it is not only the right thing to do, but allows employees to go home each night safely, is legally required, and essential for a company to be profitable and competitive in today’s marketplace.  He goes on to share the penalties paid by companies who violate acceptable health and safety protocols. 

Mr. Foulke shares 13 ways that companies can improve their safety programs while still increasing productivity and profitability:

  1.  Determine Your Vulnerability Under OSHA’s New Priorities
  2. Audit Your Company’s OSHA Recordkeeping
  3. Audit Your Workplace for Routine Violations
  4. Review Abatement of All Past OSHA Citations
  5. Prepare for OSHA’s Revised Approach to Ergonomics Enforcement
  6. Use Job Safety Analysis to Focus Workplace Safety and Health Strategy
  7. Make Safety the #1 Goal from the Floor to the “C” Suite
  8. Utilize Safety as a Profit Center
  9. Develop Emergency Action Plans to Deal with the Inevitable
  10. Protect Company’s Wellness Plan from Potential Liability
  11. Understand Implications of OSHA’s Multi-Employer Citation Policy
  12. Avoid Membership in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program
  13. Solve Other Problems by Solving Safety Problems

By keeping employee safety and health as your company’s priority, you ensure your safety programs are continuously improving, resulting in more time to focus on productivity and the growth of your company.

Industry News

BLS Releases Annual Workplace Injury and Illness Report (2010)

October 28th, 2011 · ISN Team - Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its annual report of workplace injuries and illnesses for 2010, on Thursday, October 20th.    BLS findings show a steady decline in the number of accidents for US workers since 2002. In 2010, nearly 3.1 million nonfatal, recordable incidents were reported in the private sector. The industry incident rate has reduced from 3.6 to 3.5 out of every 100 full time workers from 2009 to 2010.  The BLS found that total recordable incidence rates are highest among companies with 50 to 249 employees and lowest among small employers, fewer than 11 employees.

Within the incident rate, the total number of other recordable cases significantly lowered, while the number of cases with days away from work and job transfer/restriction (DART) cases stayed constant.  These DART cases accounted for over half of the 3.1 million incidents in 2010 and occurred at a rate of 1.8 cases per 100 full time workers. Work related illnesses make up an extremely small portion of all recordable cases with 200,000 out of 3.1 million cases being classified as such.

Manufacturing was the only industry sector to have an increase in the Total Recordable Incidence Rate (TRIR) for 2010. The TRIR increased from 4.3 to 4.4 cases per 100 full-time US workers. This increase can mainly be attributed to the decline in hours worked being larger than the decline in incidents in the industry. The manufacturing industry accounted for over 30 percent of all private sector illnesses.  With an incidence rate of 41.9 cases per 10,000 workers, manufacturing claims the highest rate of all sectors.

The public sector reported 820,300 recordable cases for state and local government workers in 2010, resulting in a significantly higher incident rate (5.7 cases per 100 workers) than the private sector. Nearly 80 percent of all injuries and illnesses reported in the public sector occur among local government workers, such as emergency response, educational, and health departments. Local government makes up the highest incident rate category with 6.1 out of every 100 workers injured.

The overall decline in injuries and illnesses not only allows for a safer working environment, but also helps employers avoid costs incurred by these injuries each year.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=20883
http://www.lanereport.com/articles/fastlane_article.cfm?id=report_nearly_31_nonfatal_workplace_injuries_and_illnesses_reported_in_2010
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/osh.pdf

ISN Speaks

Mitigating Risk by Making Informed Hiring Decisions

September 22nd, 2011 · ISN Team - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Risk is a normal part of doing business. The risk organizations face is compounded when companies hire contractors to perform work rather than using their own internal employees. Organizations increase their risk even more when there is not a standardized and consistent method for evaluating contractor health, safety, and procurement information. Managing risk is the most important task while assessing the safety and viability of a contractor.  The safest hiring decision is made when a company is able to gather all appropriate data and synthesize it into a usable format.  Although risk may not be completely eliminated, it can be effectively managed.

The decision making processes involved in contractor management are only as good as the tools used to gather and analyze the data.  The use of third party software and other tools are invaluable to any company looking to hire and retain safe and qualified contractors in a high risk environment.

There are two major considerations when managing contractors. First is deciding on the criteria for evaluation and second is developing an effective management process to evaluate this criteria. 

Historical data, or lagging indicators, is taken into account when evaluating a contractor because past safety performance is assumed to be indicative of future performance. These key performance indicators can include the contractor’s fatality rate, their total recordable incident rate or total recordable frequency (TRIR/TRF), as well as insurance indicators with an experience modification rate (EMR) or their Worker’s Compensation rate.

Improving safety performance is what the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of a contractor’s safety data is all about.  These leading indicators can include safety and training programs, on-the-job and post job evaluations and audits. Ensuring that contractors are developing and maintaining safety programs and policies that can adequately prepare them for potential hazards is crucial in determining whether or not a contractor is dedicated to safe work practices.  Training employees on these safety programs is also a necessity to ensure they translate these programs into their work environment.    

By having a standardized contractor prequalification process in place, followed by performance monitoring and evaluating, Owner Clients are able to decrease exposure to high risk situations by making better hiring decisions.  In turn, contractors and Owner Clients alike are striving to create safer work environments.

For more information on managing risk, click here.